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FOUNDATION RITES 

WITH SOME 

KINDRED CEREMONIES 

A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF 

BELIEFS, CUSTOMS, AND LEGENDS CONNECTED 

WITH BUILDINGS, LOCATIONS, LANDMARKS, 

ETC., ETC. 



BY 

LEWIS DAYTON BURDICK 



These old credulities, to nature dear, 

Shall they no longer bloom upon the stock 

Of History, stript naked as a rock 
' Mid a dry desert ? " 

Wordswcrt'b's 'Memorials ol>a T6u)- J i« 
Italy, >v. • ' > > > ' ; | ' ', 



THE/ 



Bbbcy press 



Xonfcon 



PUBLISHERS 

114 

FIFTH AVENUE 

NEW YORK 



/Montreal 



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THE UBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two COPV RECEIVED 

APR. 13 1901 

Copyright entry 

CUesi./frs'fo/ 

CLASS tfbXXo. No. 

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COPY ft. 



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Copyright, 1901, 

by 
THE 

Bbbcy press 



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CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Introductory 9 

II. Traces of Human Sacrifice at Foundations in 

Ancient Times 16 

III. Human Sacrifice at Foundations in Modern 

Times 33 

IV. Substitution of Animals 51 

V. Substitution of Animal and Vegetable Products 62 

VI. Images 76 

VII. Images — Continued 87 

VIII. Shadows and Specters 104 

IX. Relics 117 

X. Writings 137 

XI. Circular Movements and Symbols 149 

XII. Stones 167 

XIII. Sacred Colors , 176 

XIV. Pillars and Sites 184 

XV. Completion and Christening 195 

XVI. Landmarks and Boundaries 212 

Authors and Publications 233 

Index 239 



" The path of Rita is sometimes spoken of as the path which 
King Varuna, one of the oldest Vedic gods, made for the sun 
to follow. . . . 

Later on, Rita, the true, is conceived as the eternal founda- 
tion of all that exists." — Buddhist Praying- Wheel, p. 91, 
from Max Muller's Hibbert Lectures. 

" Thy beams encompass all lands which thou has made — 

All eyes see thee . . . 

The land is in thy hand . . . 

... by thee the people live . . . 

Since the day that thou laidest the foundations of the earth, 
Thou raisest them up for thy son who came forth from thy 

substance, 
The King of Egypt, . . . 
Son of the sun, living in truth, Akenaten, ..." 

Hymn to the Aten, edited by Prof. Breasted, translated 
by Mr. Griffith, History of Egypt, W. M. Flinders 
Petrie, Vol. ii. pp. 215-218. 

' • In his days did Hiel the Beth-elite build Jericho : he laid 
the foundation thereof in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the 
gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, . . . " — I. Kings, 
xvi. 34. 

" I will not ruinate my father's house, 
Who gave his blood to lime the stones together, 
And set up Lancaster." — Henry VI. part iii. v. i. 



PREFACE. 

The primitive significance of many ceremonial in- 
stitutions can only be understood by careful investi- 
gation of accepted beliefs of the period in which they 
originated. Kites survive long after the decay of 
specific beliefs out of which they grew. New mean- 
ings are assigned to them. Ceremonies and customs 
are modified so as to be adapted to changed condi- 
tions. Sometimes these transformations but indicate 
the march of conquest. In the main, however, they 
are the outcome of environment, the inspiration of 
freer thought, a wider diffusion of knowledge, greater 
scientific attainments, and broader culture. They 
signify increased intellectual activity, and measure the 
growth and progress of a people ; they mark the battle- 
fields in the struggle towards a higher civilization. 

There is no pretense that the subject of foundation \J 

rites is exhaustively treated in the following pages. 
They only purport to contain a collection of such 
material pertaining to these and kindred ceremonies 
as the writer has found in his somewhat desultory read- 
ing of interest and importance, or which has seemed 
to throw light on the relationship between primitive 
customs of more barbarous people, and such adapta- 
tions and modifications of them as survive in later and 
higher civilizations. 



8 Preface. 

Credit to the proper authorities has been given, as 
far as possible, in all cases. To the works of Baring- 
Gould, G. W. Speth, E. B. Tylor and Grant Allen, 
the writer acknowledges his great indebtedness. 
While he has not always accepted the interpretations 
of authors quoted or referred to, he makes no claim 
to infallibility of judgment, and only hopes that his 
humble contribution to the literature of the subject 
may be of some help to others interested in this de- 
partment of archeological investigation. 



FOUNDATION RITES. 



CHAPTER I. 

LNTKODUCTORY. 

The security of the foundation is the first consider- 
ation to the wise and conscientious builder in modern 
times. It is not only regarded as a matter of judi- 
cious economy, in the long run, that it should be so, 
but the builder is likewise held to be morally obligated 
to make reasonable provisions for the safety and se- 
curity of the structure which he erects. This is one 
of the recognized ethical laws of civilized nations. 
All well governed municipalities make it a penal of- 
fense to disregard it. The builder is expected to pos- 
sess a practical knowledge of the elementary principles 
of scientific construction, and to be guided thereby. 
No details must be overlooked that are essential to 
this purpose. In the belief in his fidelity and trust- 
worthiness rests our confidence in his work and in the 
safety of his structure ; and the measure of this con- 
fidence, to a large extent, gauges the commercial value 
of his services. 

If the building is of a public nature, or of consider- 
able importance, it is customary to have the foundation 
stone laid with some public ceremony, and in it, or under 

9 



io Foundation Rites. 

it, deposits are made of public records, newspapers, lists 
of contributors or stockholders, coins, pictures, etc. 
The ceremony is not always of a strictly religious char- 
acter, yet religious services almost invariably constitute 
some part of it. Historical papers are read, addresses 
are made in behalf of the enterprise for which the 
structure is erected, and God's blessing invoked upon 
it. It is entirely possible that many who witness these 
ceremonies are inspired with greater confidence in the 
future of the enterprise by the nature of these rites. 
However, it is probable that, in present times, the 
ceremony is regarded largely as a pleasant formality, 
and one for which few could give any special reasons, 
and one which would have nothing to do with the safety 
of the structure. It was not so in the primitive 
ceremonies of which all these later rites are but sur- 
vivals. It was an almost universal custom among 
primitive people to make human sacrifices on such 
occasions. The foundations must be laid in blood. 

To those who have not given special attention to 
the subject, the extent and diffusion of similar beliefs 
and customs, among nations in earlier stages of civil- 
ization, is a matter of great surprise. It is sometimes 
supposed that these kindred rites and beliefs have 
migrated from some common original source ; again, 
it is held, that they testify to the parallel development 
of the human intellect in like levels of culture. 
" How were similar conceptions of gods, rites, symbols, 
customs, and tales spread over the ancient world ? 
"Was it by independent origin ? Man and nature 
being more or less alike everywhere, the thinking and 
evolution might also be alike, That is one theory. 



Introductory. n 

Another is that the migration of races in early times 
might have carried all these conceptions from one re- 
gion to another." 1 No one theory is satisfactory to 
all students of comparative Mythology, but the fact 
is everywhere apparent that this similarity exists. 
Among these common beliefs was that of the Earth- 
Spirit, Earth-Goddess, or Mother-Earth. Certain 
functions were ascribed to her and by special rites she 
must be propitiated. Among the Khonds drops of 
her blood made the soft muddy ground harden into 
firm earth. 3 She took a high rank in the pantheon of 
the Incas, though subordinate to the Sun and the 
Moon, and offerings and libations to her made hopeful 
the harvest. 3 " Spirit of Earth, remember," she 
was invoked, in old Accadian tablets for healing the 
sick. 4 

To properly propitiate the Earth-Spirit was of the 
utmost importance in beginning a new building, in the 
early stages of civilization. She must be reconciled to 
bearing the new load with which she was to be bur- 
dened. 5 "Partly with the notion of offering a propi- 
tiatory sacrifice to the Earth, and partly also with the 
idea of securing to himself forever a portion of soil by 
some sacramental act, the old pagan laid the founda- 
tion of his house in blood/* 6 Careful consideration 
must be given to the selection of the site so that it 

1 Tlie Buddhist Pfaying-JVheel, William Simpson, 263. 

2 Primitive Culture, E. B. Tylor, vol. ii., p. 271. 

3 Ibid., p. 270. 

* Records of the Past, vol. i., p. 135. 

5 Builders' Rites and Ceremonies, G. W. Speth, p. 3. 

6 Foundations, S. Baring-Gould, Murray's Mag., Mar., 1887. 



12 Foundation Rites. 

will not be unnecessarily offensive, and in the first act 
of breaking the soil, or taking formal possession of it, 
whatever was deemed most acceptable in return, must 
be offered with fitting ceremonies. These rites were 
strictly of a religious character, as they understood it. 
To secure the assent and favor of the supernatural 
beings around them, without which there would be no 
safety for their structure, was the primary considera- 
tion. They knew little of mechanical laws, and had 
no conception of scientific construction as now under- 
stood. Not only Mother Earth must be reckoned 
with, but the " hurtful demons " of the locality must 
be favorably approached. 1 There were hostile spirits 
in the air and in the heavens, and without they were 
appeased the stability of their structure could not be 
depended upon. 

There has been much discussion among anthropol- 
ogists in relation to the earliest religious beliefs of 
savages. The word Animism has been accepted quite 
commonly as most fittingly expressive of the lowest 
religious conceptions of primitive man. It is de- 
scribed as " a conviction that every thing, stick, stock 
or stone, tree, river, cloud, mountain, is as truly 
alive as man himself, or the beasts which sur- 
round him ; and that all, without exception, are as 
really possessed of a soul or spirit, as he is himself/' 1 
In speaking of the term as applicable to the religious 
ideas of the lowest order in the valley of the Ganges, 
Professor Ehys Davids says it includes "all the con- 
ceptions preserved in the books of astrology, magic, 

1 Builders' Rites and Ceremonies, G. W. Speth, p. 3. 

2 Ibid., p. 2. 



J 



Introductory. 13 

and folk-lore, the ideas of a future life and of the 
transmigration of souls, the beliefs as to all sorts of 
minor demons, and fairies, and spirits, and ghosts, and 
gods." 1 All things were believed to be animated, and 
conceived of as having personality. "Kivers run, 
winds blow, fire burns, trees wave, as a result of their 
own will." 2 "All nature is possessed, pervaded, 
crowded, with spiritual beings." 3 This belief has ex- 
tended to modern .times, and rude races are yet found 
with this philosophy ; and even where it has long since 
given way to higher conceptions, enlightened people 
" still talk," as Tylor says, ie of being in 'good and 
bad spirits/ only recalling with an effort the long past 
metaphysics which such words once expressed." 4 

So far as the present consideration of the subject is 
concerned, it matters not whether this animistic be- 
lief, that all inanimate things are possessed with life 
or spirit, is really the earliest, among tribes lowest in 
the scale of humanity, and "the ground-work of the 
Philosophy of Eeligion," 5 or whether, preliminary to 
this, out of which it has grown, was the belief in ances- 
tral ghosts. 6 

More directly bearing upon their relation to the 
ceremonies and sacrifices connected with foundations, 
were the habit and power of migration attributed to 
these indwelling spirits. They sometimes became 
separated from the animate and inanimate objects in 

1 Buddhism, Rhys Davids, p. 36. 

2 Modern Mythology, Andrew Lang, Introduction, xi. 
8 Primitive Culture, E. B. Tylor, vol. ii., p. 185. 

4 Ibid., vol. ii., p. 182. 5 i^id., vol. i., p. 426. 

6 Evolution of the Idea of God, Grant Allen, p. 437. 



14 Foundation Rites. 

which was their proper home, and of which they were 
virtually the life. Sometimes they found their way 
safely back to their rightful habitations. Again they 
were estranged henceforth and became wandering 
spirits, or found a new abiding place. Their deserted 
tenements became the prey of evil powers. Destruction 
and decay awaited them, or at least threatened them. 
Without the indwelling spirit was provided for it, it was 
presumptuous to build a temple or lay the foundations of 
a new city. As in making atonement for trespassing 
on the domain of the Earth-Spirit, so in appropriating 
a life for the new structure, security was the primary 
thought. If, in the act of placing the foundation, a 
life is made homeless by the destruction of its cor- 
poreal tenement or making it a part of the substance 
of the foundation itself, what more natural conclusion 
than that the homeless spirit should take refuge, at 
once, in the tenantless structure which has come into 
existence at the opportune moment ? 

If we accept Tylor's definition of religion in its low- 
est form, as "belief in spiritual beings," 1 it is un- 
doubtedly true that none of the lowest tribes of which 
we have any knowledge, has been found without some 
religious belief. To some of these peculiar ideas of 
spiritual beings among primitive people, as we have 
attempted to show, is traced the origin of human 
sacrifice as a foundation rite. A large amount of evi- 
dence goes to show that this custom, at certain stages 
of civilization, has been almost universal in the world's 
history. Although its barbarous features have gradu- 
ally faded away with the enlightenment of the people, 
1 Primitive Vulture, vol. i., p. 424. 



Introductory. 15 

traces of it are yet found among savage races, and sur- 
vivals of it are conspicuous in the popular ceremonies 
of the most highly cultured nations. The distinct 
purpose of the primitive rite, as we have stated, was 
to secure the safety of the edifice, and this was equally 
true whether the sacrifice was to provide a new life or 
to propitiate the neighboring spiritual beings with 
which the soul of the new building must continually 
come in contact. Of this specific motive always asso- 
ciated with the earlier ceremonies there is but little 
trace in the formalities of similar occasions in modern 
times. Wherever and whenever advancing knowledge 
has made untenable beliefs that inspired them, the 
bloody scenes have been eliminated, for the motives 
on account of which they were instituted no longer 
had vital force. Yet we shall be able to show by his- 
toric and legendary citations, not only the great ex- 
tent of these sacrifices in ancient times, but that they 
have come down even to the present century. 



1 6 Foundation Rites. 



CHAPTER II. 

TRACES OF HUMAN SACRIFICE AT FOUNDATIONS IN 
ANCIENT TIMES. 

The myths of a people contain its earliest history. 
Out of them must be gathered our knowledge of its 
primitive characteristics. Long after they have ceased 
to have any hold upon the populace its rudimentary 
beliefs are preserved in its mythology. A late writer 
on Norse Mythology says: " Its deities never existed 
actually. It is fictitious in form and letter, but true 
in substance and spirit. Truth is eternal and univer- 
sal. It is the common treasure of all mankind. But 
it lies hidden away in material and ritual images, like 
gold in quartz, and cannot become the current gold of 
Thought until it is liberated from its temporal and 
local incrustations." ' Plutarch says, " We must make 
use of myths, not entirely as (real) histories, but by 
taking out of them that which is to the purpose, as 
in the form of a similitude." 2 It is among the myths 
and legends of nations that we are to look for traces 
of customs which were largely outgrown when their 
more authenticated histories began. Their chronicles 
tell the story of them and new motives are discovered 
for them which are more acceptable. By additions 

1 Gods of our Fathers, H. I. Stern, xv. 

2 Plutarch's Isis and Osiris, Bohn, lviii. 



Traces of Human Sacrifice. 17 

and interpolations the legendary records are recon- 
structed in conformity to the later thought. Out of 
these confused aggregations of the impossible and the 
real the patient antiquarian student gathers rich treas- 
ures of historic value. 

The Forum in ancient Rome was the market-place, 
an open space of ground in which the people met for 
the transaction of public business. The number of 
fora increased with the growth of the city. They were 
surrounded by buildings, public and private. The 
word originally means the empty space left before a 
tomb. For this reason it has been suggested that the 
Latin fora were really tomb-enclosures of the original 
foundation victims. 1 The origin of the great Forum 
is ascribed to Romulus and Tatius, 2 who are said to 
have filled up the swamp or marsh which occupied its 
site, and set it apart for a place of justice, and for as- 
semblies of the people. The story of the Forum as 
given by Plutarch is that the river had overflowed its 
banks in a recent freshet, leaving a deep mud on the 
plain where the Forum stood, and that it was soft and 
impassable yet covered with a crust. Curtius mounted 
on a spirited horse, in advance of the Sabines, plunged 
into the mire, from which he was unable to disengage 
his horse although he succeeded in escaping himself. 3 
It is told differently by other historians. According 
to Livy, Curtius at first repulsed Romulus but was 
afterwards overpowered by him, and, in endeavoring 
to make his escape, fell into the lake, which was ever 

1 Evolution of the Idea of God, Grant Allen, p. 257. 

2 Smith's Classical Dictionary, article Forum. 

8 Langhorne's translation of Plutarch's Romulus, p. 17. 
2 



1 8 Foundation Rites. 

after called by his name, even when dried up, and the 
center of the Forum. 1 The story of Procilius is that 
the earth opened, and the Aruspices declared it was 
necessary for the safety of the city, that the bravest 
man in it should throw himself into the gulf, where- 
upon Curtius, mounted and armed, leaped into the 
abyss which immediately closed. 2 These legendary 
stories certainly have the appearance of being later in- 
terpretations of what was originally a human sacrifice. 
Of a similar character is the tradition that Romulus 
and Remus quarreled over the location of the Imperial 
city, with the result that Remus lost his life, and like- 
wise Faustulus and Plistinus, brothers and foster 
parents of the twin children. As it is told by Plutarch, 8 
when they could not agree upon the site for the city, 
their dispute was referred to the decision of augury, 
and was decided m favor of Romulus, who was pro- 
ceeding to opei.. a ditch where the walls were to be 
built, when his brother, angered by the adverse de- 
cision of the augury, obstructed the work and made 
sport of it. He finally attempted to leap over the 
ditch to show his contempt for it, and fell in, or as 
" some say, he fell by the hands of Romulus." In the 
struggle which ensued the foster fathers also lost their 
lives, and all were buried by Romulus, in Remonia, 
which was the location on Mount Aventine chosen by 
Remus for the city. In later periods in which we have 
more definite facts, foundation victims were often near- 
est relatives, or those most closely associated with the 
building. There is reason to believe such sacrifices 

1 Plutarch's Romulus, p. 17, note. 

2 Ibid., p. 17, note. » Ibid., p. 13. 



Traces of Human Sacrifice. 19 

were often voluntary, and looked upon as the highest 
honor. The disagreement over the site and the dis- 
satisfaction with the auguries would be reasons as- 
signed for the slaying of the victims long afterwards, 
when they were no longer influenced by the feelings 
which prompted them. 

It is said that the Aventine hill received its name 
from a king of Alba, Aventinus, who was reputed to 
have been killed by lightning and there buried. It 
was adorned with numerous temples in the early ages 
of the city, some of which were preserved as Christian 
churches after Christianity became the religion of the 
Empire. The church of St. Sabina dates from the 
days of Theodosius and is supposed by some historians 
to have been the celebrated temple of Diana, or at 
least, built on the site of that temple, or from its 
ruins. 1 Later on we shall again refer to the relics be- 
neath the high altar of St. Sabina, and the miraculous 
stone driven through its pavement, and only suggest 
in passing that it is not impossible but that the Aven- 
tine hill bore the name of the victim in the foundation 
rites of its great pagan temple. 

During the wars of the Lacedaemonians and the 
Messenians when continued reverses and expenditures 
had brought the affairs of the latter into a deplorable 
condition, with the desertion of their slaves and a 
pestilence upon them, they resolved to abandon their 
towns in the interior and move to the mountains. 
They selected for their future home the small town 
which Homer had characterized as "rocky Ithome." 

1 History of All Religious Denominations, Thomas Wil- 
liams, Hartford, 1823, p. 25. 



20 Foundation Rites. 

They sent an envoy to Delphi in order to learn the will 
of the gods, and were commanded by the oracle to sacri- 
fice a pure virgin (selected by lot out of the family of the 
^Epytidae) at night to the gods below.' Forthwith 
the maidens of the designated family drew lots and 
the daughter of Lyciscus was selected for sacrifice. 
Epebolus, the seer, advised that she was not acceptable 
to the gods as she was not the daughter of her reputed 
father, bat only an adopted child. Aristodemus, an 
illustrious man of the same family, then voluntarily 
offered his daughter as a sacrifice in the place of the 
daughter of Lyciscus, who had fled meanwhile with her 
father to Sparta. The authority of the father was 
questioned by a Messenian lover of his daughter, who 
claimed she was betrothed to him, and finally as a last 
resort, in order to save her life, declared she was preg- 
nant, which so enraged Aristodemus that he forthwith 
slew his daughter. The assertion of her lover being 
found untrue, it was finally decided that she was an ac- 
ceptable sacrifice. Now it is expressly declared by Pau- 
sanias a that the pestilence did not extend to all parts of 
the country of the Messenians. To escape from it was 
their purpose in abandoning the interior and taking up 
their abode in Ithome. There the plague had no foot- 
hold. Not to drive it away, therefore, was the sacrifice 
of the maiden of the iEpytidse, but rather in order to 
gain the favor and protection of the gods in founding 
their new homes. 

Mommsen finds but slight trace of human sacrifice 
among the ancient Eomans except of those who were 

1 Pausanias' Description of Greece, Bohn, vol. i., p. 245. 

2 Pausanias, vol. i. , p. 245. 



Traces of Human Sacrifice. 21 

convicted criminals, or those who voluntarily gave 
themselves for that purpose. He says, however, that, 
" the execution of the criminal condemned to death 
was as much an expiatory sacrifice offered to the 
divinity as was the killing of an enemy in just war," 
and, " when the gods of the community were angry 
and nobody could be laid hold of as definitely guilty, 
they might be appeased by one who voluntarily gave 
himself up." 1 There were in later times, among the 
Indo-Germanic stock, according to the same author, 
human sacrifices, but by those who were the offspring 
of degeneracy and barbarism. 2 Still there is good 
reason for believing that in the still earlier period be- 
fore Roman culture had even reached the condition of 
the time of which Mommsen writes, such rites pre- 
vailed to the same extent as among other early races. 

Mr. G.~W. Speth is authority for the statement that 
two Greeks and two Galatians were buried alive in the 
beast market at Rome. 3 

Professor Mahafly says great Hellenistic cities, as, 
for instance, Antioch, had a girl sacrificed at their 
foundation. 4 The 22d of May was set apart as the 
anniversary of this sacrifice. 5 This virgin sacrificed at 
the foundation was afterwards worshiped as the for- 
tune of the town. 6 

1 History of Rome, Theodor Mommsen. W. P. Dickson's 
translation, vol. i., p. 232. 

2 Ibid., vol. i.,p. 233. 

3 Builders' Rites and Ceremonies, G. W. Speth, p. 5. 

4 The Tlireshold Covenant, H. C. Trumbull, p. 325, quotes 
from personal letter. 

5 Religion of the Semites, W. Robertson Smith, p. 356. 

6 Ibid., p. 356. 



22 Foundation Rites. 

" At Laodicea the annual sacrifice of a stag that 
stood for a maiden, and was offered to the goddess of 
the city, stands side by side with the legend that the 
goddess was a maiden, who had been sacrificed to con- 
secrate the foundation of the town, and was thence- 
forth worshiped as its fortune." ! The annual mourn- 
ing on the mountains of Mizpeh, in Gilead, was 
thought to represent an ancient human sacrifice, like 
that of Laodicea. a 

In Babylonian literature or art there have not yet 
been found any certain traces of human sacrifices, 3 yet 
it must be remembered that as far back as our earliest 
knowledge extends there was a high degree of civili- 
zation among the Babylonians and Assyrians. Says 
Professor Jastrow : " When the foundations were to be 
laid for a temple or a palace, it was especially impor- 
tant to secure the favor of the gods by suitable offer- 
ings." 4 If the recent excavations and discoveries have 
not revealed any positive evidences of human sacrifices 
at foundations they have brought to light a wealth of 
material which will be discussed in future chapters 
treating of substitutions and survivals characteristic 
of the advanced culture of the period at which our 
present knowledge begins. 

Some points in the legends of the death of Osiris have 
curious interest in connection with the study of this sub- 
ject. During the reign of Osiris as King of Egypt his 
evil-minded brother Typhon, in league with the Ethio- 

1 Religion of the Semites, p. 391. 
2 Ibid., p. 471. 

3 Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Morris Jastrow, Jr., p. 
662. * Ibid., p. 663. 



Traces of Human Sacrifice. 23 

pian Queen Aso, conspired to destroy him. 1 The secret 
measurement of Osiris was taken by the profligate 
Queen and a coffin of great elegance made to exactly 
fit his body. This having been taken into the ban- 
queting room, it was admired by all, and promised by 
Typhon to whomsoever it should exactly fit. When 
Osiris laid himself down in it the conspirators hastily 
closed the lid, sealed it up, and threw it in the river 
whence it drifted to the sea and was washed ashore 
at Byblus where it was ' ' enfolded, embraced, and 
concealed " 2 by a beautiful Erica plant which quickly 
grew up into a large tree, attracting the attention of 
the King, who caused it to be cut and made the foun- 
dation pillar of his home. Isis, in pursuit of her lost 
brother, gained entrance to the home of King Mala- 
cander, and finally obtained possession of the pillar in 
which the coffin was concealed. " As soon as ever 
she obtained privacy, and was left by herself, having 
opened the coffer and laid her face upon the face of 
the corpse," 3 finding herself spied upon by a little 
boy, she turned upon h'im with such a " dreadful look 
in her rage," that he died of fright. " Others say that 
the boy is called Palaestinos, or Pelusios, and that the 
city was named after him, having been founded by 
the goddess." 4 The legend goes on to state that 
Typhon again gained possession of the coffin, recog- 
nized the body, tore it into fourteen pieces and scat- 
tered them abroad throughout Egypt. Isis persistently 

1 Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, Bohn, xiii. et seq. ; Religion of 
the Ancient Egyptians, A. Wiedemann, p. 209 et seq. 

2 Plutarch's Isis and Osiris, Bohn, xv. 

3 Ibid., xvii. 4 Ibid., xvii. 



24 Foundation Rites. 

traced out the fragments, and wherever she found one 
made it the foundation of a temple of Osiris. 1 In ref- 
erence to this story Plutarch says : "Are not these 
things exactly like the fine-spun fables and empty 
tales that poets and story-tellers, like spiders, breed 
out of themselves, without foundation from first to 
last, and weave and spread them out ? Nevertheless, 
this history contains certain questions, and descrip- 
tions of real events ; and in the same way as mathe- 
maticians say that the rainbow is the image of the sun, 
variously colored through the reflection of the image 
upon the cloud, so the legend before us is a kind of 
reflection of a history reflecting the true meaning 
upon other things." 2 

According to the fragments of Chaldean cosmogony 
preserved by Alexander Polyhistor from the writings 
of Berosus, a priest of Bel, at Babylon, about the time 
of Alexander the Great, before the heavens and the 
earth were formed, the universe was peopled with mon- 
sters of which a female called Omorca was mistress, 
whom Bel overcome and put to death, making of one 
half of her body the earth, and of the other half the 
heavens. 3 " This account of Berosus is now confirmed 
by the cuneiform records," says Professor Jastrow. 4 
The Tiamat of the creation epic is the Omorca of Bero- 

1 The Mummy, E. A. Wallis Budge, p. 278. 

2 Isis and Osiris, xx. 

3 Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 509; Cory's Ancient 
Fragments, p. 59 ; Demonology and Devil Lore, M. D. Conway, 
vol. ii., p. 112, note. 

4 Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Morris Jastrow, Jr., 
p. 419. 



Traces of Human Sacrifice. 25 

sus, and when she is overcome by Marduk "he cuts 
her like one does a flattened fish into two halves." He 
splits her lengthwise. 

" The one half he fashioned as a covering for the 
heavens." * Out of this part of the body was built the 
firmament " in the midst of the waters " which di- 
vided "the waters from the waters." 2 To it Bel 
attached a bolt and placed a guardian over it with 
orders "not to permit the waters to come out." 3 One 
tradition is that out of the head of Omorca men were 
formed,* but according to others Bel cut off his own 
head, whereupon the other gods mixed the blood, as 
it gushed out, with the earth ; and from thence men 
were formed. 6 

The Chaldean story of Omorca is closely akin to the 
myth of the old Norse Cosmogony according to which 
the giant Ymir's body became the foundation of the 
universe. Ymir having been killed by the sons of Bor, 
the three pillars, Odin and his brothers, they flung his 
body into Ginnungagap, the great abyss, and of it 
formed the earth. From Ymir's blood were made the 
seas and waters ; from his flesh the land ; the moun- 
tains were formed out of his bones, the jagged ridges, 
peaks and cliffs from his teeth ; from some bits of 
broken bones were made the stones and pebbles ; they 
made the vault of heaven from his skull, and his eye- 

1 Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 428. 

2 Genesis i. 6. 

3 Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 428. 

4 Mallet's Northern Antiquities, Bohn, p. 509, note. 

5 Cory's Ancient Fragments, p. 59 ; Chaldea, Z. A. Ragozin, 
p. 266. 



26 Foundation Rites. 

brows were skilfully wrought into a walled castle for 
their home, while of his brains the clouds were fash- 
ioned. 1 From the putrid flesh of the giant were en- 
gendered a race of dwarfs, at first but maggots, but 
afterwards through favor of the gods becoming of hu- 
man shape and understanding. 2 

The great ash, Yggdrasil, was the sacred tree of the 
Norsemen, under which every day the gods assembled 
in council. Its branches spread over the whole world 
and even reached above heaven. One of its three 
roots started from the body of the great Ymir in the 
place where Ginnungagap had formerly been, and 
under this root was Mimir's well, whose waters filled 
with wisdom whoever drank of them. Another root 
of Yggdrasil sprang from the skull of the giant which 
formed the heaven, and this was the holy fountain 
where the gods sat in judgment, and near to it was the 
beautiful dwelling of the Norns, the maiden sisters 
who determine the fate of mortals. 3 

Brahma gave himself to form the universe. The 
sun was made of his eyes. His head is heaven. His 
heart became the moon. The winds are his breath. 4 
One of the occasions for solemn sacrifices for which 
instructions are given in the Vedic rituals, was the 
building of city walls, when the bodies of five victims, 
a man, a horse, a steer, a sheep and a goat, were laid 
in the water used to mix the clay for the bricks to 

1 Gods of our Fathers, H. I. Stern, p. 3 ; Mallet's Northern 
Antiquities, pp. 404, 405. 

2 Northern Antiquities, p. 409. 
a Ibid., pp. 411, 412. 

4 Foundations, Baring-Gould, Murray's Mag., Mar., 1887. 



Traces of Human Sacrifice. 27 

which their blood was supposed to give the necessary 
firmness. 1 

Christ was the lamb slain from the foundation of 
the world. Christ was the corner stone and the apos- 
tles the foundation stones of the Church. 2 An old 
hymn for the dedication of a church says : 

' ' Christ is made the sure foundation 
And the precious corner stone, 
"Who, the twofold walls uniting, 
Binds them closely into one." 

" Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, 
precious, . . . the stone which the builders disallowed, 
the same is made the head of the corner." 3 "For 
other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which 
is Jesus Christ." 4 Ye are of the household of God, 
" built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, 
Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone." 5 
" The blood of all the prophets which was shed from 
the foundations of the world, may be required of this 
generation. " 6 

The Hebrew word meaning son is derived from the 
Hebrew meaning to build, to erect, to construct, accord- 
ing to Gesenius, as quoted by Mr. William Simpson, 
who raises the question whether the sacrifice of the 
first born was a foundation rite. 7 " Thou shalt set 
apart unto the Lord all that openeth the matrix . . . 
the male shall be the Lord's. And every firstling of 

1 Vedic India, Z. A. Kagozin, p. 407. 

2 Foundations, Murray's Mag., Mar., 1887 ; Rev. xiii. 8. 

3 1 Peter ii. 6, 7 ; Isaiah xxviii. 16. 

4 1 Corinthians iii. 11. 5 Ephesians ii. 20. 

6 Luke xi. 50. 7 Builders' Rites, p. 46. 



28 Foundation Rites. 

an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb . . . and all the 
firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou re- 
deem." 1 " Shall I give my first-born for my transgres- 
sion, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ?" 2 

The body of Osiris became the pillar of the house 
of King Malacander, 3 the three sons of Bor, Odin, 
Wili, and We, were the three earliest Asen (supports, 
pillars), 4 and Mahommedans say the twelve sons of 
Jacob are the twelve pillars which support the Dome 
of the Rock at Jerusalem. 5 When Iphigenia, acting 
as the bloody priestess of Diana, is called upon to sacri- 
fice her only brother Orestes, she exclaims : 

" Of all the house, 
My father's house, one pillar, as I thought, 
Alone was left, which from its cornice waved 
A length of auburn-locks, and human voice 
Assumed." s 

The sons were the foundations of the family. 
" And they that shall be of thee shall build the old 
waste places ; thou shalt raise up the foundations of 
many generations." 7 

The primitive relation between the words " son " 
and " build " is at least significant of the connection 
in ah important way of the sons in earliest times with 
beliefs and rites pertaining to building ; and the met- 
aphorical language of later times, picturing the sons 
as corner-stones and pillars of the house, serves to in- 

1 Exodus xiii. 12, 13. 2 Micah vi. 7. 

3 Isis and Osiris, xv. * Gods of our Fathers, p. 2. 

6 Builders'' Rites, p. 46. 

6 Iphigenia in Tauris, Euripides, translated by Robert Pot- 
ter. 7 Isaiah lviii. 12. 



Traces of Human Sacrifice. 29 

tensify our conviction of the practical importance of 
this relationship in that remote period. 

The biblical story of the rebuilding of Jericho is of 
exceeding interest in connection with the study of 
human sacrifice in its relation to builders' rites in an- 
tiquity. As more commonly understood, the destruc- 
tion of the city had been decreed by divine judgment ; 
it was sacrilege, therefore, to rebuild it, and a curse 
had been pronounced by Joshua against whoever should 
attempt it ; in consequence of this, when the founda- 
tions of the new city had been laid by Hiel in the days 
of the wicked Ahab, he was punished for his temerity 
by the death of his eldest son, as it had been decreed 
in the adjuration of Joshua, and the completion of the 
work by setting up the gates, was followed by the 
death of his youngest male child. 

In comment on this particular incident Grant Allen 
says, ' ' Here we see evidently a princely master builder, 
sacrificing his own two sons as guardian gods of his 
new city." 1 

Were the children of Hiel really sacrificed as a foun- 
dation offering ? A brief statement of the little data 
at command will at least throw some light on the ques- 
tion. The reign of Ahab is placed 876-854 B. C. 2 
The earliest written account of Hiel's punishment, or 
sacrifice, is found in I. Kings xvi. 34, the final re- 
daction of which book is now placed 620-600 B. C. 3 In 
this account the verse containing it is the end of a 
chapter and unconnected with the preceding verses, 

1 Idea of God, Grant Allen, p. 255. 

2 Polychrome Joshua, p. 64. 

3 The Bible, Rev. J. T. Sunderland, p. 89. 



30 Foundation Rites. 

in which the wickedness of King Ahab is related with 
which it has nothing to do. The construction seems 
to indicate that the verse is an interpolation of some 
editor's memorandum of an attempt to rebuild the 
fallen city, during Ahab's reign, by the Bethelite Hiel. 
It says "With Abiram his first-born he founded her 
and with Segub his youngest he set up her gates, ac- 
cording to the word of Yahwe through Joshua bin 
Nun." 1 It will be observed that the idea of a curse 
being pronounced against the builder is not contained 
in it. There is nothing to show that the offering of 
the builder's sons was in the nature of a punishment. 
The story is again told in Joshua vi. 2Q. The final 
redaction of this book was 440-400 B. 0. 2 The curse 
upon the one who rebuilds the fallen city is now made 
prominent. Moreover, it dates from the destruction 
of the city. There is no longer any question that the 
builder's offspring are the penalty of his transgression. 
This idea is brought out still more emphatically in the 
latest published translation : " The laying of the 
foundation shall cost him his first-born. The setting 
up of the gates shall cost him his youngest son." 3 
" The aim has been," says the translator, "to render 
the sense of the original as faithfully as possible 
rather than to sacrifice that sense to give a literal 
translation." 4 The vital point at issue is whether 

1 1 am indebted to Professor Morris Jastrow, Jr., for this lit- 
eral rendering of this passage. 

2 The Bible, J. T. Sunderland, 87 ; The Polychrome Joshua, 
p. 44. 

3 The Polychrome Joshua, Rev. W. H. Bennett. 

4 Polychrome Joshua, Introduction, v. 



Traces of Human Sacrifice. 31 

the translator's conception of the passage quoted was 
originally connected with the historic incident related, 
or belongs to the thought of a later period. 

It may be noticed that the language of the oldest 
record of the event is most indicative of a foundation 
rite. From I. Samuel x. 5, it is also apparent that 
Jericho had been rebuilt and was inhabited in the 
reign of David, a century and a half before the time 
of Ahab. Hiel's rebuilding was then in all probability 
an enlargement of its fortifications. The offering of 
the great builder's sons to secure the divine favor in 
his great undertaking would be the most exalted pos- 
sible. Such an honor and privilege would perhaps 
link his name forever with the perpetuity of the city. 
As a patriotic and religious duty he accepts it as the 
perfection of his work, the crowning glory of his con- 
structive career. There is less probability of the 
thought of punishment for any wrong-doing connected 
with it. Such sacrifices of the members of builders' 
families are not unusual in the history of these rites. 
Two centuries later, the legend of the fact remains, 
but the belief in its necessity or efficacy has faded 
away. Some reason must be found by the chroniclers 
to account for the event, which is consistent with the 
moralities and ideals of the later period. The idea of 
penalty becomes associated with it. The conception 
of a divine anathema is born and usurps the place in 
history of the dead belief which inspired the event 
which the historian records. It may be added also 
that in Hebrew the word accursed is derived from a 
root meaning consecrated to God, 1 so that what was 
1 Myths of the Neiv World, D. G. Brinton, p. 158. 



32 Foundation Rites. 

originally an act of consecration might become at a 
later period a curse just as the old Norse word which 
meant in pagan times, to sacrifice, signified in later 
Christian times, to curse. 1 

1 Mallett's Northern Antiquities, p. 284, note. 









Human Sacrifices in Modern Times. 33 



CHAPTEE III. 

HUMAN SACRIFICES AT FOUNDATIONS IN MODERN 
TIMES. 

The ancient oriental belief that the body of Brahma 
himself served for the foundation of the universe, finds 
its parallel in the legendary tales of the pueblo-dwell- 
ing Zunis of the New World. For, they said, with 
the substance of himself, the great all-father, Awona- 
wilona, impregnated the great deep and the scums 
which rose upon its surface became the all-containing 
earth and the all-covering sky. 1 

It is a common belief, according to Elie Keclus, 
among the tribes of India, that the earth at first was 
a formless mass of mud which could not bear the 
weight of a man or his dwelling, and in which nothing 
could take root, and so God said, " Spill human blood 
before my face," and they sacrificed a child before 
him, when the bloody drops falling upon the soil, stif- 
ened and consolidated it ; 2 so Burma rocked under 
foot until Rani Attah made it solid with a sacrifice ; 
so Erin, the Isle of Saints, rose from the waves and 
sunk again every seventh year until an angel weighted 
it ; so the two rocks upon which the " large-breasted " 
city of Tyr was founded floated hither and thither 

1 Myths of the New World, D. G. Brinton, p. 230. 

2 Primitive Folk, Elie Reclus, p. 315. 

3 



34 Foundation Rites. 

until sprinkled with blood, when the rocks became 
immovable and took root in the waves. 1 

The language which Shakespeare puts into the mouth 
of Clarence when solicited by the Earl of Warwick to 
unite with the conspirators against his brother, 

' ' Look here, I throw my infamy at thee ; 
I will not ruinate my father's house, 
Who gave his blood to lime the stones together, 
And set up Lancaster," 2 

though it be but the metaphorical expression of the 
son's filial devotion, suggests at least the thought that 
the great poet's mind was familiar with the fact that 
human blood had figured in the ceremonial founding 
of many a house. Equally suggestive are the half re- 
pentant words of King John when he realizes the 
extent of the public indignation over the supposed 
murder of young Arthur : 

" There is no sure foundation set on blood, 
No certain life achieved by other's death." 3 

And when death overtakes the King's nephew in at- 
tempting to save his life by leaping from the castle's 
wall, in his dying moments, he is impressed with the 
belief that his "uncle's spirit is in these stones." 4 

The Irish-born St. Oolumba, who lived in the sixth 
century, and was the celebrated founder of monasteries 
in Ireland, Scotland and northern England, having been 
excommunicated and exiled from his native land, in 
563, with twelve disciples, took up his abode on the little 
Island of Iona, near the west coast of Scotland, where 

1 Primitive Folk, p. 315. 

2 Henry VI. , v., ii. 3 King John, iv., ii. * Ibid., iv., iii. 



Human Sacrifices in Modern Times. 35 

lie founded a monastery which became the mother- 
church of the Picts, and for two centuries was foremost 
on the British Isles. The area of the Island in Anglo- 
Saxon Chronicles is estimated at " five hides/' or about 
three and one-half square miles. It is said the remarkable 
fertility of the soil, at that time believed to be miracu- 
lous, led Columba to select it for the headquarters of his 
missionary labors. According to the legendary tales of 
the Saint, when he attempted to build the walls of 
his monastery, through the work of some evil spirit, 
they fell down as fast as they were built. It was super- 
naturally revealed to Columba that they would never 
stand until a human victim was buried alive; 1 and he 
said to them, " It is permitted to you that some one of 
you go under the earth to consecrate it;" 2 whereupon, 
his companion Oran volunteered to accept the mission, 
and henceforth became the patron Saint of the monas- 
tery. Other accounts deny that the sacrifice of Oran 
was voluntary, but that it was as a punishment for deny- 
ing the resurrection ; and, according to others, it fell 
to him by casting lots. It is told that after three days 
Columba ordered the earth removed that he might 
take a farewell look of his friend, when he was so enraged 
at an impious remark of Oran that he commanded the 
earth to be flung in again, exclaiming, " Earth ! Earth ! 
on the mouth of Oran, that he may blab no more." All 
accounts agree that after the interment of the living 
monk the earth-spirits were appeased, and there was 
no further trouble with the foundations. 3 

* Builders' Rites, p. 14. 2 Idea of God, p. 250. 

3 Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 104 ; TJie Threshold Covenant, 
p. 50 ; On Foundations, Murray's Mag., March, 1887. 



36 Foundation Rites. 

Only a generation before Shakespeare wrote Henry 
VI. the blood of a Christian captive was literally given 
to " lime the stones together " at Algiers. The walls of 
the fort were built of concrete blocks made of lime 
and sand, rammed in a mold and exposed to dry in the 
sun. When baked thoroughly solid they were turned 
out of the mold and ready for use. Geronimo was a 
Christian who had served in a Spanish regiment. Cap- 
tured by pirates he was turned over to the Dey of Algiers. 
In 1569, September 18th, Geronimo was put into one of 
the molds and the concrete rammed around him, and 
when the block had hardened, it was placed in the walls 
of the fort. After the occupation of Algiers by the 
French a subsidence in the wall led to an examination 
of the blocks. Subsequently the block was removed 
( December 27, 1853), in order to make room for anew 
fort. When this block of concrete was exploded it was 
found to contain a skeleton of a human body, the whole 
of which was visible from the neck to the knees, in a 
perfect state of preservation. The cast of the head, the 
remains, and the block of broken pise are now pre- 
served in the Cathedral of Algiers. 1 

Earliest English Chronicles have preserved the story 
of Vortigern. In the middle of the fifth century, the 
Komans finally abandoned Britain. The weak and 
irresolute Prince of Dumnonium, unable to repel the 
aggressive Picts, invited the Saxon princes Hengist and 
Horsa to assist in driving them from his territory. 2 
Finding the Picts so easy a prey they then turned upon 

1 Builders' Bites, p. 5 ; TJireshold Covenant, p. 48 ; Idea of 
God, p. 252 ; On Foundations, Baring-Gould. 

2 Hume's History of England, vol. i.,p. 12. 



Human Sacrifices in Modern Times. 37 

Prince Vortigern. Horsa fell at the battle of Aylesforcl 
but his brother Hengist was victorious throughout Kent. 
Private and public edifices were destroyed. Priests were 
slaughtered at the altar. Prince Vortigern consulted a 
magician who advised him to build a tower for his own 
defense since he had lost all of his fortified places. A 
suitable spot was selected on Mount Eryri. 1 Workmen 
were gathered and began the foundations, but what they 
built one day the earth swallowed the next. The magi- 
cian was again consulted and ordered that a son must be 
found " born of a mother without a father/' 2 with whose 
blood the foundations must be sprinkled. The victim 
was found in the shadowy Merlin, the reputed offspring 
of a Welsh Princess and a demon, whom baptism had 
saved from his malignant destiny, and whose miracu- 
lous powers finally saved him from the threatened sac- 
rifice. 

Many of the legends point to the sacrifice of the 
wives or sisters of the builders as most effective. Ac- 
cording to aEoumanian tale, Eadu the Black promised 
Manoli and his masons treasures, titles, and estates if 
they would build him a palace so great and beautiful 
that its equal could not be found, but if they failed, 
he threatened to have them walled-up living in the 
foundation of his monastery, which should be built by 
cleverer hands. For four days the masons toiled dur- 
ing the working hours and each night what they had 
built crumbled away. On the fourth night Manoli 
woke his comrades to hear his terrible dream. A voice 

1 Builders' Rites, 14. 

2 On Foundations ; Idea of God, p. 252. Teutonic Mythology, 
p. 1647. 



38 Foundation Rites. 

had whispered to him while he slept that their work 
would be in vain, and each ni^ht would destroy the 
labor of the day unless they built into the wall, living, 
the first woman who should come upon them the next 
day. This the workmen took a solemn oath to do, in- 
fluenced by the prospective honors which waited for 
them. In the morning the master-mason was stricken 
with terror at the remembrance of his oath. He 
mounts a scaffold and scans the surrounding plain. 
In the distance the beautiful Flora advances with her 
husband's breakfast. The heart-broken Manoli clasps 
his doomed wife in his arms and holds her in position 
while the walls are raised around her. When she is 
finally hidden from sight, as Manoli moves away the 
faint voice of his wife moans " Manoli ! Manoli ! the 
wall is pressing on me, and my life is dying out." The 
magnificent structure was completed. The masons 
waited upon the scaffolding the coming of the Prince 
to accept it and reward them. By the command of 
the Prince the props below which held the scaffolding 
were knocked away, and all the masons fell to instant 
death. Manoli caught upon a projecting carving and 
would have escaped, but just then there came from the 
wall the moaning cry, " Manoli ! Manoli ! the cold wall 
is pressing on me ; my body is crushed, my life is 
dying out ; " and the master-mason, faint and giddy, 
fell to the earth. * 

A kindred story is told of the building of the fortress 

of Skadra by three brothers. The demon tore down 

by night as fast as three hundred workmen could build 

in the daytime, year after year. The demon must be 

1 Builders' Rites, p. 16. 



Human Sacrifices in Modern Times. 39 

appeased by the sacrifice of the first of the wives of the 
three brothers who should come to bring them food. 
The brothers swore to keep the secret from their wives. 
The two eldest secretly warned their wives and when 
the wife of the younger came unsuspectingly they built 
her into the wall, though they consented to her en- 
treaty that an opening should be left in the wall for a 
time for her to suckle her babe. And the legend 
says, to this day, a stream of water, milky with lime, 
trickles down the fortress wall of the mother's tomb. 1 

So, for three years, the workmen tried in vain to 
make the fortifications stand at Scutari, in Asia Minor, 
till they laid hold of a young lady who brought to them 
their dinner, and immured her in the walls. 2 

a In a song, of which there are several versions, of 
the building of the bridge of Arta, it is told how the 
bridge fell down as fast as it was built, until at last the 
master-builder dreamed a dream that it would only 
stand if his own wife were buried alive in the founda- 
tions. He therefore sends for her, bidding her dress 
in festive attire, and then finds an excuse to make 
her descend into the central pile, whereupon they heap 
the earth over her, and thus the bridge stands," 3 but 
the wife spoke her dying curse upon the bridge, that 
it should tremble henceforth like a flower-stalk. 4 

The same story is told of building the bridge of 

1 Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 105. 

2 On Foundations ; The Threshold Covenant, p. 47. Grimm, 
1143. 

3 Quoted in TJie TJireshold Covenant, p. 52, from Rodd's 
Customs and Lore of Modern Greece. 

i Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 105. 



40 Foundation Rites. 

Tricha, excepting that instead of being revealed in a 
dream it was whispered to the architect by a bird, how 
that he mnst make the foundation stand. A Rouma- 
nian poet has connected a similar legend with the build- 
ing of the monastery Curtea de Argest, in Wallachia. 1 

A young lady was built into the wall of Meder-Man- 
derscheid with an opening left, through which she was 
fed as long as she was able to eat, according to tradi- 
tion, and in 1844, the wall was broken through and a 
cavity in which was a human skeleton was actually 
discovered. 2 

It is oftentimes only innocent children that will ap- 
pease the hostile spirits, or children that have been pur- 
chased with a price. As the Siberian railway ap- 
proached the northern boundaries of the Chinese Empire 
and surveys were made for its extension to the sea, there 
was great excitement at Pekin, on account of a rumor 
that the Russian minister had applied to the Empress 
of China for two thousand children to be buried in the 
road-bed under the rails in order to strengthen it. 8 

Some years ago, in rebuilding a large bridge, which 
had been swept away several times by inundations in 
the Yarkand, eight children were purchased from poor 
people, at a high price, and immured in the founda- 
tions. The endurance of the structure is attributed 
by the Chinese to the propitiation of the river-god by 
the offering of the children, and not to the masonry. 4 

To make the castle of Liebenstein stand fast and im- 

1 TJie Threshold Covenant, p. 52. 

2 On Foundations ; Builders' Rites, p. 5. 

3 E. P. Evans, in Appleton's Popular Science Monthly, vol. 
liv., pp. 208,209. ^ i bid> 



Human Sacrifices in Modern Times. 41 

pregnable it is told that a child was bought for hard 
money and walled in, It was given a cake to eat as 
the masons worked. As they progressed the child' 
cried, " Mother, I see thee still ; " and later, " Mother, 
I see thee a little ; " and as they put in the last stone, 
"Mother, now I see thee no more." 1 

When the plague had devastated a Slavic town on 
the Danube, and it was determined that it must be built 
anew, with a new citadel, messengers were sent out one 
morning before sunrise in all directions with orders to 
seize upon the first living creature with which they 
should meet. The victim captured was a child whom 
they buried alive under the foundation stone of the new 
citadel. 2 

It is said that many years ago, when the ramparts 
were being raised around Copenhagen, it was impos- 
sible to make the walls stand firm till they took a little 
innocent girl, placed her in a chair by a table and 
gave her playthings and sweetmeats, and while she 
was thus enjoying herself, twelve masons built an arch 
over her which they covered with earth to the sound of 
drums and trumpets. 3 

There is a story in the folk-lore of China that in 
building a bridge near the gate of Shanghai some dif-' 
ficulty was found in laying the foundation, when the 
builder pledged the lives of two thousand children. 
The goddess to which they were pledged consented 
that it would be a sufficient propitiation if that number 

1 Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 104; On Foundations Baring 
Gould. 

2 The Threshold Covenant, p. 50. 

3 On Foundations ; Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 105. 



42 Foundation Rites. 

were attacked with the smallpox from the effects of 
which about one half as many died. 1 

A Calcutta correspondent of the London Times, as 
quoted by Mr. Speth from Folk- Lore Record, writes, 
August 1st, 1880 : " A rumor has got abroad and is 
firmly believed in by the lower classes of the natives, 
that the government is about to sacrifice a number of 
human beings in order to ensure the safety of the new 
harbor works, and has ordered the police to seize 
victims in the streets. So thoroughly is the idea im- 
planted, that people are afraid to venture out after 
nightfall. There was a similar scare in Calcutta 
some seven or eight years ago, when the Hooghly 
bridge was being constructed. The natives then got 
hold of the idea that mother Ganges, indignant at 
being bridged, had at last consented to submit to the 
insult, on the condition that each pier of the structure 
was founded on a layer of children's heads." 2 

The reason assigned for the great strength of the 
tower of Winneberg is that a child of the master-mason 
was built into the wall. 3 It is believed a child was 
built in alive in the outer wall of Reichenfells Castle, 
and that a projecting stone marks the spot, and if that 
were pulled out, the wall would tumble down at once. 4 
The village authorities bought a child of a poor mother 
and built it alive into the foundations of the church at 
Blex in Oldenburg/ and in 1615, Count Anthony 
Gunther of Oldenburg rescued an infant child that 

1 Demonology and Devil Lore, M. D. Conway, vol. i., p. 204. 

2 Builders' Rites, p. 21. 

3 On Foundations. 4 Builders'' Bites, p. 12. 
6 Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 251, 



Human Sacrifices in Modern Times. 43 

the workmen were about to bury under a dyke which 
they were repairing ; yet tradition says that this same 
Count buried a living child in the foundations of his 
own castle. 1 A boy named Hugo was sunk alive in 
the foundation when a portion of the dyke gave way 
at Butjadeirgen. 2 Two children were immured in the 
basement of the wall of Sandel ; and one in that of 
Ganderkesee. 3 When Detinetz, on the Danube, was 
built the Slavonic chiefs sent men out to take the first 
boy they met and immure him in the foundation. 
The Slavonic name for boy, " dijete," from this act 
became the name of the town. 4 A child's skeleton 
was found embedded in the foundations of the Bridge 
gate in Bremen city some years ago. 5 

When Rajah Sala Byne was building the fort of Sial- 
ket, in the Punjaub, the foundations of the south- 
east bastion gave way so repeatedly that he had re- 
course to a soothsayer, who assured him that it would 
never stand until the blood of an only son was shed 
there, and the only son of a widow was sacrificed. 6 In 
1463, when the broken dam of the Nogat was repaired, 
having been advised to throw in a living man, a beggar 
was made drunk and buried therein. 7 Lord Leigh was 
accused of having built an obnoxious person into the 
foundation of a bridge at Stoneleigh. 8 The wall of 

1 On Foundations. 2 Ibid. 8 Ibid. 

4 Ibid ; Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 105 ; Teutonic Mythol- 
ogy, p. 1143. 

5 Tlie Threshold Covenant, p. 58. 

6 Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 108. 

7 Ibid., vol. i., p. 104 ; Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 250. 

8 Primitive Culture,, vol. i., p. 106. 



44 Foundation Rites. 

Hols worthy church was built over a living human 
being. * When Blackfriars Bridge was taken down, in 
1867, having stood for a century, on removing the 
second arch, a quantity of bones, some of them human, 
were found, upon which had been laid the foundation 
of the pier. 2 

It is said that faithless nnns were immured in the 
walls during the Middle Ages, and Eider Haggard 
states that he saw in the Museum in Mexico bodies 
immured in like manner by the Inquisition. 3 Walter 
Scott alludes to this practise in Marmion : 

"Yet well the luckless wretch might shriek, 
Well might her paleness terror speak ! 
For there were seen in that dark wall, 
Two niches, narrow, deep and tall ; 
Who enters at such grisly door 
Shall ne'er, I ween, find exit more." 4 

And again, he says : 

" And now that blind old Abbot rose, 
To speak the Chapter's doom, 
On those the wall was to enclose, 
Alive, within the tomb." 5 

In a note it is explained that a small niche, sufficient 
to enclose their bodies, was made in the massive wall of 
the convent ; a slender pittance of food and water was 

1 On Foundations. 

2 Builders' Rites, p. 11, on authority of London Illustrated 
News, March 2d, 1867, and Journal of the British Archeo- 
logical Association, vol. xxiii., p. 92. 

3 Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 250. 

4 Marmion, Walter Scott, canto ii., xxiii. 
6 Ibid., ii., xxv. 



Human Sacrifices in Modern Times. 45 

deposited in it ; and the awful words Vade in Pace, 
were the signal for immuring the criminal. 1 It seems 
to me, however, that the charge of infidelity is more 
likely to have been a later reason given than the cause 
of the original custom. 

Among the ruins of the Abbey of Coldingham were 
some years ago discovered the remains of a female 
skeleton, which, from the shape of the niche, and posi- 
tion of the figure, seemed to be that of an immured 
nun. 2 

An old church two miles from Eugby was repaired 
in 1876. Part of it was built in the thirteenth century 
by the Normans. It became necessary to lower the 
north and south walls, and, in doing so, two skeletons 
were discovered about a foot below the original foun- 
dations. One was under each wall, exactly opposite 
each other. Each was covered by an oak slab six feet 
long by ten inches wide. The skulls were thought to 
be Danish. The teeth were in perfect condition and 
number. s 

The London Daily Graphic for October 16, 1893, 
said : "A Keuter's telegram from. Berlin states that a 
horrible discovery has been made at Angerburg, in 
the course of some excavations which are being carried 
on beneath a church there. The workmen came 
across a small walled-in space, in which they found a 
human skeleton, a broken chair, and the remains of a 
helmet and a pair of boots. The walls bore the marks 
of finger-nail scratches, and there was only too much 
evidence that some person had been walled in alive." 4 

1 Globe Edition Scott's Poems, p. 511. 2 Ibid. , p. 512. 
3 Builders' Rites, p. 9. 4 Ibid., p. 46. 



46 Foundation Rites. 

It is said that under the walls of the only two round 
towers of the ancient Irish examined, human skeletons 
were found buried. 1 

In the South Sea Islands the foundations of the 
temples were formerly laid in human blood. 2 " In 
Hindoostan, Burma, Tennasserim, Borneo, Japan, 
Galam, Yarriba, Polynesia, and elsewhere, there are 
modern survivals of this foundation-laying in blood. 
It would seem to have been well-nigh universal as a 
primitive usage/' 3 A boy and a girl were formerly 
buried alive in Galam, Africa, before the great gate of 
the city to make it impregnable. Similar sacrifices 
were usual at the foundation of a house or village in 
Great Bassam and Yarriba. Professor Tylor gives 
Ellis as authority for the statement that the central 
pillar of one of the temples at Masva was planted on 
the body of a human victim. 4 When a large house 
was built, among the Milanau Dayaks of Borneo, a 
deep hole was dug to receive the first post which was 
suspended over it ; a slave girl was placed in the ex- 
cavation, and at a given signal, the suspended post de- 
scended and crushed the girl to death. It is stated on 
the authority of an eye-witness, that a criminal was 
put in each post-hole for a protecting demon, when the 
gate of the new city of Tavoy, in Tennasserim, was built. 5 
According to a seventeenth century account of Japan, 
it was believed that a wall would be secure from ac- 
cident if built on the body of a willing victim ; and when 
a great wall was to be built some slave, induced to 

1 The Threshold Covenant, p. 50. 2 Ibid., p. 148. 

3 Ibid., p. 52. 4 Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 106. 

& Ibid., vol. i., p. 107. 



Human Sacrifices in Modern Times. 47 

offer himself for the purpose, would lie down in the 
trench, and his body would be crushed by the heavy 
stones lowered upon him. 1 

The origin of the name of the town Dahomey is 
traced to the foundation rite of King Dako who built 
his palace (i on the body of Danh," which is the literal 
meaning of the word. 2 

Human beings were buried for spirit-watchers under 
the gates of Mandalay, in Burma ; a queen was 
drowned in a Burmese reservoir to make the dyke 
safe ; the body of a hero was divided and buried under 
the fortress of Thatung to make it impregnable. 
Tylor says these are the records "whether in his- 
torical or mythical form, of the actual customs of the 
land." 3 

The Burmese kings formerly had human beings 
buried alive at the four corners of the walls of their 
capital city at the time of its foundation. The spirits 
of the deceased would then watch over the population 
and foil the attempt of invaders to force an entry into 
the city. 4 

Mr. Speth quotes from the Illustrated London News, 
April 14, 1894, the following passage, which refers to 
the palace at Mandalay, Burma : " This imposing 
building is literally reared above dead men's bones, 
as at the time of its erection over fifty persons of both 

1 Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 107. 

2 Builders' Rites, p. 4. 

3 Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 107. 

4 Builders' 1 Rites, p. 43. Given on authority of a paper read 
before the Ninth International Congress of Orientalists, 
1892. 



48 Foundation Rites. 

sexes, and of all ages and ranks, were sacrificed, their 
bodies being afterwards buried under the foundation 
of the city and palace. Four of the victims were 
even buried under the throne itself." Mr. William 
Simpson, commenting on the above statement, says, ' i I 
have no doubt about the sacrifices as given, but I am 
inclined to think that the Illustrated London Neivs is 
wrong about the city." Mr. Simpson's conjecture is, 
that, instead of Mandalay, it was the older capital, 
Amarapoora, six miles to the south of the present 
capital. 1 

It was formerly a custom in Siam, when a new city 
gate was to be erected, for public officers to seize the 
first persons that passed by, who were then buried 
alive under the gate-posts to serve as guardian angels 
of the city. 2 

In October, 1865, Christian laborers at Duga, near 
Scutari, rescued two children from the hands of 
two Arnaut Mussulmans, who had bound them and 
were about to bury them alive under a block- 
house. 3 

Mr. H. Clay Trumbull gives the following story of 
China, on the authority of a native Chinese clergy- 
man : " When the bridge leading to the site of St. 
John's College, in Shanghai, was in process of build- 
ing, an official present took off his shoes, as indicating 
his rank, and threw them into the stream, in order to 
stay the current, and enable the workmen to lay the 
foundations. Finding this unavailing, he took off his 
garments and threw them in. Finally he threw him- 

i Builders' Rites, p. 44. 2 Ibid., p. 4. 8 Ibid., p. 4. 



Human Sacrifices in Modern Times. 49 

self in, and as his life went out the workmen were en- 
abled to go on with their building. To this day the 
belief is general that that structure stands fast because 
of (his sacrifice/' 1 

Elie Eeclus gives Bastian's San Salvador as authority 
for the statement that the Grand Jagga caused a man 
to be beheaded on the spot which his palace was to 
occupy. He then walked through the gushing blood 
towards the points of the compass, and struck the first 
blow with his pick-axe to prepare the foundation. a 

In building a house, in Alaska, until it came into 
the possession of the United States, in 1867, human 
sacrifices were common in making the foundation. It 
is said, at the present time, the same ceremonies are 
enacted, with the exception of the sacrifices. The 
earlier ceremony is described by one familiar with it. 
A spot is designated for the fireplace, and four holes 
dug for the corner posts. A slave that has been 
captured in war, or is a descendant of such a slave, is 
blindfolded and compelled to lie down face uppermost 
in the place selected for the fireplace. A sapling is 
cut and laid across the throat of the slave. At a given 
signal, the two nearest relatives of the host sit upon 
the respective ends of the sapling and thereby choke 
the victim to death. Four more slaves are blindfolded 
and one is compelled to stand in each post-hole when, 
at a signal, a blow is dealt on the forehead with a club 
oramented with the host's coat of arms. 3 

1 The Tlireshold Covenant, p. 48. 

2 Primitive Folk, Elie Eeclus, p. 316. 

3 Tlie Tlireshold Covenant, p. 51, on authority of W. G. 
Chase in Journal of American Folk-lore vol. vi., p. 51 

4 



50 Foundation Rites. 

With the blood of fifty girls, who had been put to 
death for the purpose, the King of Ashanti, in Octo- 
ber, 1881, mixed the mud used in repairing the royal 
palace which had been injured by an earthquake. 1 

1 Popular Science Monthly, vol. xlii. , p. 661. 



\\ 



Substitution of Animals. 51 



CHAPTER IV. 

SUBSTITUTION OF ANIMALS. 

The preceding pages have pointed out the close 
connection of the sacrificial victim with the architect or 
founder of the city or building in process of construc- 
tion, in many cases. At other times captives in war or 
slaves have been used for the foundation sacrifice. Pro- 
fessor Robertson Smith expresses the opinion that the 
sacrifice of captives is not of the nature of an act of 
blood-revenge, such as that which is taken in hot blood, 
on the field of battle, but that as the captive is the 
choicest part of the prey taken from enemies he is 
therefore " chosen for a religious purpose." 1 

" Man originally sacrificed his equal as the best sub- 
stitute for himself ; as advancing civilization rendered 
human sacrifices distasteful, the human victim was 
supplied by animals, ennobled by constant contact with 
man." 2 

All slaughter of domestic animals appears to have 
been at one time sacrificial. 3 The domestic animals 
were regarded as the same blood or kin as the tribe, and 
the slaughter of one, like that of the king's son, was a 

1 Religion of the Semites, p. 472. 

2 Quoted from Prof. Eggling, in Builders' Rites, p. 45. 

3 Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 330 ; Old Testament in the 
Jewish Church, p. 249. 



52 Foundation Rites. 

sacrifice. " This scarcely means more," says Grant 
Allen, " than that the sacred domestic animals were 
early accepted as substitutes for the human victim." 1 
As examples of classic substitution of this sort, Mr. 
Tylor mentions the sacrifice of a doe for a virgin to 
Artemis in Laodicea, a goat for a boy to Dionysus at 
Potniae, and the story of the iEolians of Tenedos, who 
sacrificed to Melikertes, a new-born calf, instead of a 
new-born child, shoeing it with buskins and tending 
the mother cow as if a human mother. 2 

Beasts, like men, according to the old Babylonian 
legend, are formed of earth mingled with the blood of 
a god. The kinship between gods and men was only 
one part of the larger kinship which embraces the 
lower creation. 3 

According to the Satapatha Brahmana : ci At first, 
namely, the gods offered up a man as the victim. 
When he was offered up, the sacrificial essence went 
out of him. It entered into the horse. They offered 
up the horse. When it was offered up, the sacrificial 
essence went out of it. It entered into the ox. They 
offered up the ox. When it was offered up, the sac- 
rificial essence went out of it. It entered into the sheep. 
They offered up the sheep. When it was offered up, 
the sacrificial essence went out of it. It entered the 
goat. When it was offered up, the sacrificial essence 
went out of it. It entered the earth." They then 
found it by digging, in the substances of rice and barley, 

1 Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 330. 

2 Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 404 ; The Golden Bough, vol. 
i., p. 329. 

8 Religion of the Semites, p. 86. 



Substitution of Animals. 53 

oblations with which have the same efficacy as the 
sacrificial animal victims. 1 

Among the ancient Egyptians certain animals were 
fixed upon as the incarnations of certain deities. The 
sacred animal was the renewed life of the god incorpo- 
rate in it. The death of the sacred animal did not 
involve the death of the god whom it represented. 2 
" The idea seems to have been/' says Mr. Trumbull, 
" that he who covenanted by blood with God, or with 
the gods, when his house, or his city, was builded, 
was guarded, together with his household, while he and 
they were dwellers there/' 3 

Plutarch says, that after the burial of his brother 
and foster-fathers, in Remonia, Romulus sent for 
persons in Etruria who had a ritual of rules and cere- 
monies to be observed in the foundation of cfties, tem- 
ples, walls and gates ; and that at first a circular ditch 
was dug, and the first-fruits of everything reckoned 
good by use, or necessary by nature, were cast into it. 
Then each bringing a small quantity of earth from the 
country from which he came, threw it in promiscuously. 
In the next place they marked out the city like a circle 
round this center, and the founder fitted a brazen 
plowshare to a plow, and having yoked a bull and a 
cow together, himself drew a deep furrow round the 
boundaries. The business of those who followed was 
to turn all the clods raised by the plow inwards to the 
city. Wherever they designed to have a gate, the plow 
was lifted out of the ground, making a break in the 

1 Quoted from Eggling's Translation in Builders' Rites, p. 45. 

2 Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, A. Wiedemann, p. 182. 
8 TJie Threshold Covenant, p. 46. 



54 Foundation Rites. 

furrow. 1 Other traditions affirm the sacrifice after- 
wards of the yoked pair which had drawn the plow . 2 
If we accept the theory of Mommsen that all these leg- 
ends are but "improvised explanations" which it is 
" the first duty of history to dismiss/' 3 it is nevertheless 
true, that the persistent belief of the people in them, is 
testimony to the actuality of the primitive practise of 
the customs described. 

One of the oldest sacred customs of Rome which ex- 
tended down to a late period of its history, was the 
annual sacrifice of a horse on the Camjpius Martins. 
A struggle took place at this festival between the two 
halves of the old city for the horse's head, which was 
nailed to the king's palace under the Palatine, or to 
the Mamilian Tower, according as victory lay with one 
party or the other. 4 That this custom was the annual 
corn festival, observed at the end of the harvest, on 
what was once the king's cornfield, is the contention 
of Mr. Frazer. According to the legend as given by him 
at the time when the last of the kings was driven from 
Some, the corn stood ready for the sickle on the crown 
lands beside the river ; but no one would eat the ac- 
cursed grain. It was, therefore, flung into the river in 
such quantities that it became the nucleus of an isl- 
and. 6 The tail of the horse was cut off and carried with 
such speed to the king's house that the blood dripped 
on the hearth of the house. By spilling the blood 
of the sacrifice upon the hearth of the king the safety 

1 Romulus, Langhorne's Translation. 

2 The TJireshold Covenant, p. 265. 

3 History of Rome, Theodor Mommsen, vol. i., p. 74. 

4 Ibid., p. 81. 5 The Golden Bough, vol. ii., p. 68. 



Substitution of Animals. 55 

of the town was ensured. This feature of the ceremony, 
and the formation of the island around the corn, at 
least suggest, that originally it may have had some con- 
nection with rites of building ; and this suggestion is 
materially strengthened by the sacrificial ceremonies 
of the horse at a later period among the northern 
nations. 

The rites in founding Messene are perhaps the most 
interesting in all Grecian history. When, in the twelfth 
year of the siege of Eira, the bending of the wild fig- 
tree on the banks of the Meda till its topmost boughs 
dipped in the stream, indicated that the period of safety 
had passed for the Messenians, according to the revela- 
tions of the Pythian priestess, Aristomenes buried in the 
fastnesses of Mount Ithoine, the secret records of the 
people, for in their preservation lay their only chance 
of again recovering their lost country. Three cen- 
turies afterwards, after the Theban victory at Leoctra, 
the scattered Messenians were recalled from their 
wanderings. A year before the victory, the god had 
foretold their return to the Peloponnese. As Epami- 
nondas was hesitating where to locate them and build 
a city for them, an old man, " like a priest of the mys- 
teries," appeared to him in a vision of the night, bid- 
ding him to restore the Messenians to their country 
if he would have immortality and a name ever glori- 
ous. The worship of the great goddesses, Demeter and 
Persephone, had been the most sacred rites of the coun- 
try until extinguished at the close of the second Mes- 
senian war. Xow the hero Caucon, the founder of these 
rites, appeared to Epiteles in a dream, and revealed to 
him, the spot where Aristomenes had hidden the 



56 Foundation Rites. 

sacred records of the mysteries in the earth when 
forced to abandon his native land to the foe. 1 He was 
bidden to dig in the place where he should find an 
ivy and a myrtle tree growing in Ithome, and recover 
an " old woman who was ill and confined there in a 
brass coffin," and there he found " a cinerary urn of 
brass," in which were thin leaves of beaten tin rolled 
up like a book, on which were written the mysteries 
of the great goddesses, which Aristomenes had buried. 2 
The seers announced that the omens were favorable, 
and preparations were at once made for building the 
town. Says Curtius : " On the terraces of Ithome, the 
Messenians had of old been most successful in their 
struggle against Sparta. Eighty-six years before, the 
same mountain had once more, though only tempora- 
rily, been the refuge of liberty. At the present time 
an enduring creation was to be accomplished ; the 
foundation stone was to be laid of a state vigorous 
with vitality ; and it was doubtless one of the happiest 
days in the life of Epaminondas, when it was permit- 
ted to him, in the midst of a population gratefully 
hailing his restoration of their freedom and of their 
native land, and recognizing the justice of the gods in 
the expiation of an ancient wrong, to commence with 
solemn sacrifices and prayers, the building of the city 
of Messene." 3 Says Pausanias : " That day they devot- 
ed to sacrifices and prayers, and on the following days 
they raised the circuit of the walls, and began to build 

1 History of Greece, Ernst Curtius, "Ward's Translation, vol. 
iv., p. 454. 

2 Pausanias' Description of Greece, vol. iv., p. 26. 

3 Curtius' History of Greece, vol. iv. , p. 453. 



Substitution of Animals. 57 

their homes and temples inside the walls." x There 
was a Messenian tradition from the time of Aristom- 
enes that Arcadia was a second native land to their 
own, and now the Arcadians brought down from their 
mountain-homes " the sacrificial victims for the heca- 
tombs at the Messenian foundation festival." 2 This 
was 369 B. C, and 287 years after Aristomenes had 
buried the records. 

Laying the foundation of a new house in modern 
Greece is under the direction of the priest, who at- 
tends with the family and workmen, in full canonicals, 
accompanied with holy water and incense. After prayer, 
those present are aspersed, and the site is sprinkled 
with consecrated water. A fowl or lamb is then killed 
and decapitated by one of the workmen and the blood 
is smeared on the foundation stone, under which the 
animal is afterwards buried, thereby giving strength 
and stability to the structure. 3 The Greek term 
for this ceremony indicates, says Trumbull, a sacrifice 
to the deity of the threshold, or the foundation.* 
Another belief among the modern Greeks is that 
whoever goes by where a foundation is being laid will 
die within a year unless it is prevented by the 
builders, who must sacrifice a lamb or black cock on 
the foundation stone. 5 

According to a Swedish tradition a lamb was usu- 
ally buried under the altar of the first Christian 
churches to give them security. 6 Danish legends say 

1 Pausanias, Bk. iv, ch. 27. 2 Curtius' Greece, vol. iv., p. 453. 

3 Golden Bough, vol. i., p., 144. 

4 The Tlireshold Covenant, p. 53. 5 Builders' Bites, p. 17. 
6 Kirk-Grims in Cornhill Mag., Feb., 1887. 



58 Foundation Rites. 

that a lamb was buried under the altar of a church and 
pigs and hens were buried alive under other houses. 1 

Count Floris of Holland visited the island of Wal- 
cheren in 1157, and on his return to Holland, sent ex- 
perienced workmen to repair the sea-walls, which were 
in a dilapidated condition. In one place, where the 
dam crossed a quicksand, 2 they were unable to make 
it stand till they sank a live dog in the quicksand. 3 
A living blind dog buried under the threshold of a 
stable is a device for preventing cattle from straying 
away, and a living cock buried under the wall or into it 
insures favorable weather. 4 

There is a legend that when St. Patrick was build- 
ing one of his churches the materials were moved to 
another place every night. Investigation showed this 
had been done by a bull which, by order of the Saint, 
was killed, when there was no more trouble. 

There is a Eussian superstition that the first to enter 
a new house will die within the year ; but this may be 
prevented if some animal is killed and buried where 
the first stone is laid. It may be obviated also by 
another ceremony. Let the carpenters call out at the 
first stroke of the ax, the name of some bird or 
beast, and this bird or beast named is supposed to die 
within the year. 5 There is an old custom in some 
parts of the United States, after the frame is erected 
for a new house or other building, for the builders 
to climb to the peak of the rafters, and cry out, " This 

1 Kirk-Grims ; Prim. Culture, vol. i., p.115 ; On Founda- 
tions, Murray's Mag., March, 1887. 

2 On Foundations. 3 Ibid., Teutonic Mythology, p. 1142. 
4 Builders' Rites, p. 17. 5 Ibid. 



Substitution of Animals. 59 

is a good frame and deserves a good name, and what 
shall we call it ? " 1 After this is repeated several 
times, others respond with some name. This is possibly 
a survival of some similar belief as that of the Eussians, 
and may have been originally connected with some 
foundation sacrifice. 

The custom of sacrificing a slave girl to the spirits, 
among the Milanau Dayaks in Borneo, preparatory to 
building a large house, has been mentioned in the fore- 
going chapter. Travelers in the East report that a 
chicken is sometimes substituted for the slave girl, 
and is thrown into the hole dug for the purpose, and 
crushed by the suspended timber. 

According to the Chinese book, Yuh Hea Ke ( jeweled 
casket of divination), before beginning to build, the 
workmen should sacrifice to the gods of the neighbor- 
hood, of the earth and wood. Should the carpenters 
be very apprehensive of the building falling, they, when 
fixing a post, should take something living and put 
beneath it, and lower the post on it. Then, to liberate 
the evil influences, they should strike the post with an 
ax, and repeat, 

" It is well, it is well, 
May those who live within, 
Be ever warm and well fed." 2 

Whenever a temple or building cracked in ancient 
India it was attributed to malevolent divinities, and 
offerings and sacrifices were made to propitiate them. 
The Rajahs formerly laid their foundations in human 

1 Primitive Culture, vol. i. , p. 106. 

2 Ibid., vol i., p. 107, note. 



60 Foundation Rites. 

blood. In the reign of Shah Jehan, which began in 
1627 and continued for thirty years, animals were 
slaughtered at Delhi and their blood used on the 
foundations of the city. 1 

As out of the body of the Chaldean Omorca the 
universe was formed, in Persian myth, the divine ox, 
Ahidad, was slain that the world might be made. 2 
Legend informs us, says Grant Allen, that the lamb was 
a substitute for a human victim, in the Hebrew rite of 
the Passover. 3 

The laying of the foundation of the temple at Jeru- 
salem, the building of which was begun in the reign 
of Cyrus, is thus described : " And when the builders 
laid the foundations of the temple of the Lord, they 
set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the 
Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the 
Lord, after the ordinance of David, king of Israel. 
And they sang together by course in praising and 
giving thanks unto the Lord ; because he is good, for 
his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all 
the people shouted with a great shout, when they 
praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house 
of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and 
Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient 
men, that had seen the first house, when the founda- 
tion of this house was laid before their eyes, wept 
with a loud voice ; and many shouted aloud for joy ; so 
that the people could not discern the noise of the shout 

1 Builders' Rites, p. 44 ; Primitive Folk, p. 315. 

2 On Foundations. 

3 Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 333. See Religion of the 
Semites, p. 445. 



Substitution of Animals. 61 

of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people ; 
for the people shouted with a load shout, and the noise 
was heard afar off." * Before the foundation of the 
temple was laid, they began to offer burnt offerings 
from the first day of the seventh month. 2 

In the reign of Darius, when the building of the 
temple was again renewed, and search was made for 
the decree of Cyrus concerning the first foundations, 
it was found among the rolls in the palace of Achmetha. 
" Let the house be builded," it said, "the place where 
they offered sacrifices, and let the foundations there- 
of be strongly laid." 3 Then it was further decreed 
by Darius that "bullocks and rams and lambs," for 
burnt offerings, and wheat and salt, and wine and oil, 
should be given them day by day without fail, "that 
they may offer sacrifices of sweet savor unto the God 
of Heaven, and pray for the life of the King and of 
his sons." 4 

1 Ezra iii. 10-13. 2 Ibid., iii. 6. 3 Ibid., vi. 3. 

* Ibid., vi. 9-10. 



62 Foundation Rites. 



CHAPTER V. 

SUBSTITUTION OF ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE PRODUCTS. 

One of the divine gifts attributed to Apollo was 
skilfulness in laying foundation walls. In the third 
century before the beginning of the Christian Era, 
Callimachus sang : " Nor silent lyre nor noiseless tread 
should the servants of Phoebus have, when he so- 
journs among them, if they have a mind . . . that 
their walls should stand firm on ancient foundations." * 

" His fair tresses drop ambrosial dews, 
Distil soft oils, and healing balm diffuse ; 
And on what favored city these shall fall, 
Life, health, and safety guard the sacred wall," 2 

It is said a town or colony was never founded by the 
Greeks without first consulting the oracle of Apollo. 3 

"And following Phoebus men are wont to measure 
out cities. For Phoebus ever delights in founding 
cities and Phoebus himself lays their foundations. At 
four years of age Phoebus laid the first foundations in 
fair Ortygia, near the circular lake. The huntress 
Artemis was wont to bring constantly the heads of 
Cynthian she-goats, but from them Apollo was weav- 

1 Hymn to Apollo, Banks' translation. 

2 Ibid., Tytler's translation. 

8 Smith's Classical Dictionary. 



Substitution of Vegetable Products. 63 

ing an altar. The foundations he laid with horns ; 
from horns he built the altar itself, and placed under 
it walls of horns around." 1 

" And from this model, just in every part, 2 
Apollo taught mankind the builder's art." 

In the earliest times of which we have any knowl- 
edge of Babylonian religion animal and vegetable prod- 
ucts were listed among the offerings. 3 It was custom- 
ary to anoint the foundation stones of temples and 
palaces with oil and wine. Over the thresholds, and 
over the stones, libations of oil, honey and wine were 
poured. Nebopolassar placed sweet herbs under the 
walls. Nabonnedos poured oil over the bolts and 
doors, as well as on the thresholds of the Shamash 
temple at Sippar, and filled the temple with the aroma 
of frankincense. 4 Great importance was attached to 
the rite. The ancient Kings enjoined their successors 
to anoint the foundation stones with oil when in 
repairing the temples they should come upon them. 5 
When Jacob woke from his sleep, at Bethel, and, vow- 
ing his vow, set up the holy stone for a pillar for God's 
house, he poured oil upon the top of it. 6 That this 
oil was primarily the fat of the animals sacrificed is the 
the conclusion of Eobertson Smith. 7 

1 Hymn to Apollo, Banks' translation. 

2 Ibid. , Tytler's translation. 

3 Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Morris Jastrow, 
Jr., p. 661. * Ibid., p. 665. " 

6 Inscription of Sennacherib. Records of the Past, vol i., p, 
56 ; Annals of Assurbanipal ; Ibid., p. 107. 
6 Genesis xxviii. 18. 7 Religion of the Semites, p. 364. 



64 Foundation Rites. 

" Through the history of sacrifice," says Mr. Tylor, 
"it has occurred to many nations that cost may be 
economized without impairing efficiency. The result 
is seen in ingenious devices to lighten the burden on 
the worshiper by substituting something less valuable 
than what he ought to offer, or pretends to." x So the 
hair of an ox takes the place of the ox in some Parsi 
ceremonies. So the finger-joint or the tip of the finger 
is substituted for the human body. 2 To avoid taking 
life, in Brahminic sacrifice, melted butter is accepted 
for the living animal. 3 

In the later sacred books of the Hindus directions 
are given for the ceremonies attending the building of 
a house. The place for the dwelling is marked out 
and sacrifice offered in the center on an elevated spot. 
The offerings are vegetable and animal products instead 
of the living beasts and men prescribed in the ancient 
Vedas. When the pits for the posts are dug, the in- 
structions are to pour water-gruel into them. The 
builder accompanies the oblation which he pours into 
the pits with the words, " To the Steady One, the 
Earth Demon, Svaha. " When the post has been placed 
in the pit, he exclaims : "This navel of the world I 
set up, a stream of wealth, promoting wealth. Here I 
erect a firm house, may it stand in peace, dropping ghee 
(melted butter). Stand here, post, firm, rich in 
horses and cows, stand safely, dropping ghee ; stand 
here fixed in the ground, prosperous, long-lasting, 
amid the prosperity of people who satiate themselves. 

1 Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 399. 

2 Ibid., volii., p. 400. 

3 Ibid., vol. ii., p. 405. 



Substitution of Vegetable Products. 65 

May the Malevolent Ones not reach thee." ! Two posts, 
were placed to each of the cardinal points. The sacred 
Kusa grass was sometimes put in the hole for the posts 
into which water with rice and barley were thrown 
with the words : " To the Steady One, the Earth De- 
mon, Svaha." 2 Rice was sometimes viewed as a living 
creature in sacrificial offerings. "In such a case it 
is not unreasonable to say that the rice may be regard- 
ed as really an animate victim." 3 

According to Chinese legend, it was the life in the 
egg which became the foundation of the continent. 
It floated hither and thither until it finally grew into 
a continent. 4 Beneath the threshold of his dwelling 
the Eussian peasant buries eggs to propitiate the house 
spirits. 5 The city of Naples was built on an egg, legend 
says. An egg was found built into the walls of the 
Kirchspiels Church at Iserlohn. Egg-shells were found 
in the foundation of the chimney in a forest hut at 
Altenhagen. 6 

Statues are preserved of Apollo, in which the great 
founder of cities is represented with a great pile of 
eggs underneath him, and another heap of eggs in the 
form of a cone beside him. 7 An egg fastened to the 
roof by fillets was hung in the temple of his daughters, 

1 Builders' Rites, p. 9, from vol. xxix. Sacred Books of 
the East. 2 Builders ' Rites, p. 8. 

3 Religion of the Semites, p. 224, note. 

4 Myths of the New World, D. G. Brinton, p. 230. 

5 Tlie Threshold Covenant, p. 19. 

6 Builders' Rites, p. 9 ; Buckle's History of Civilization, 
vol. i., p. 226. 

7 Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology, R. 
Payne Knight, p. 147. 

5 



66 Foundation Rites. 

Hilaria and Phoebe. 1 Eggs ornamented the Ionic 
capitals. 2 

In describing his excavations of the temple at Nip- 
pur, Dr. Peters says : "The only mass of solid ma- 
sonry was the two-staged structure near the north- 
western edge, which constituted the ziggurat proper. 
Starting at the southern corner of this, I cut a trench 
through the center. It proved to be a solid mass of 
unbaked brick, sixty-seven and a half feet thick from 
top to bottom. First there were some six feet of im- 
mense blocks of adobe, then a mass of smaller sun-dried 
bricks arranged in a system so singular that there 
could be no doubt of its homogeneity. A strange find 
made here was a goose egg contained in a cavity be- 
tween blocks of unbaked brick. Some humorous or 
mischievous workman had walled it in two thousand 
years ago, and there we found it still intact." 3 Is it 
not far more probable that it was deposited there as a 
foundation sacrifice, in accordance with a sacred rite, 
and for a serious purpose, rather than as a freak of 
mischief or humor ? 

Belief in the potency of eggs to ward off evil in- 
fluences was primarily connected with the origin of a 
popular custom of modern times. The Easter eggs were 
formerly blessed by a priest and worn as an amulet. 4 

The flame of a candle is a symbol of life. There 

1 Pausanias' Description of Greece, book hi., chap. xvi. 

2 Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 
110. 

8 Nippur, John P. Peters, vol. ii., p. 123. 
4 T. F. Thistleton Dyer, in Chambers's Encyclopedia, article 
Easter ; Brand's Popular Antiquities, p. 92. 



Substitution of Vegetable Products. 67 

are many records of its use as a substitute for a living 
being. In Yorkshire it was at one time customary to 
bury a candle in a coffin. 1 It was clearly a survival of 
the barbarous human sacrifice at burials which pre- 
ceded it. The burning of three candles daily was sub- 
stituted for the daily sacrifice of three men at Heliop- 
olis. 2 Candles were carried as protection from evil 
beings by the South American Indians, in the Malay 
Peninsula, and in India. 3 They were placed in the 
stables and woodsheds in Bulgaria on the Feast of St. 
Demetrius to prevent evil spirits from entering into 
the domestic animals. 4 

" A wondrous force and might 
Doth in these candels lie, which if at any time they light, 
They sure believe that neyther storm or tempest dare abide, 
Nor thunder in the skies be heard, nor any devil's spide, 
Nor fearful sprightes that walke by night, nor hurts of 
frost orhaile." 5 

There are traces of the use of candles in making foun- 
dations secure. A tallow candle was discovered built 
into the wall of the tower of St. Osyth's Priory, Essex. 
One is said to have been immured in the chancel wall 
of Bridgerule Church. 6 The ceremonial benediction 
of candles in the Roman Ritual is proof that the 
belief in the efficacy of candles to protect dwellings 
was accepted by the Church : "From the habitations 
of those in whatsoever places they were lighted or 
placed, the princes of darkness, with all that minister 

1 On Foundations. 2 Ibid. 

3 Primitive Culture, vol. ii.,p. 195. 

4 Ibid., vol.ii., p. 196. 

6 Brand, Popular Antiquities, p. 24. Q On Foundations. 



68 Foundation Rites. 

to them, were frightened, routed, and trembling fled 
away." 1 

The belief which formerly prevailed in corpse- 
candles originated in the supposed connection between 
flame and life, and in some primitive ideas of the 
soul, which will be discussed further in subsequent 
chapters. The death-light, or corpse-candle, was sup- 
posed to move between the churchyard and the house 
where death was about to take place. It is thus re- 
ferred to by the Eeverend Increase Mather : " In some 
parts of Wales Death-lights, or Corpse-Candles (as they 
call them) are seen in the night time going from the 
house where somebody will shortly die, and passing 
into the Churchyard. Of this, my Honored and 
never to be forgotten Friend, Mr. Eichard Baxter, has 
given an account in his Book about Witchcrafts lately 
published." 2 

The holy perfume was a " favorite accessory to sac- 
rifice " from early times. It was thought to be the 
blood of an animate and divine plant. 3 Even the right 
to look upon the sacred trees was reserved to certain 
holy families, who, when harvesting the gum, must not 
be defiled by contact with the dead, or with women. 4 
' ' According to the work of the apothecary, the pure 
incense of sweet spices" was prepared for the holy 
tabernacle. 5 

1 "Ut quidcunque locis accensae, sive positee fuerint, 
discedunt principes tenebrarum, et contremiscant, et fugi- 
ant pavidicum omnibus ministris suisab habitationibus illis," 
etc. 2 Wonders of the Invisible World, p. 244. 

8 Religion of the Semites, p. 406. 

*Ibid., p. 406, note and reference to Pliny. 

5 Exodus xxxvii. 8. 



Substitution of Vegetable Products. 69 

The perfume is an essential part of sacred things. 
According to tradition among the natives of Marti- 
nique, to smell of the flowers devoted to the Virgin is to 
depreciate the offering. The Virgin is cheated and can- 
not be expected to receive them with so much favor." 1 

Incense burned on the threshold of the door and at the 
window was a protection against backbiters and slander- 
ers, according to Tuscan tradition. " Against people 
who chatter evil against us, take incense with the two 
fingers and the thumb and put it on the threshold of 
the door and at the window ... set fire to the incense, 

and say, 

" Incense, Incense ! 
Mayst thou burn well ! 
And so may burn, and so may burn 
The tongues who speak ill of me." 2 

And likewise, according to an incantation described 
by Ovid, three pinches of incense put under the thresh- 
old in a mouse-hole will give protection from the evil 
eye and a slanderous tongue. 8 

The ceremony attending the commencement of 
building a typical aboriginal house in New Mexico is 
described as follows : The material for the structure 
having been collected, the builder goes to the village 
chief, who prepares for him four small eagle feathers. 
The chief ties a short cotton string to the stem of 
each, sprinkles them with votive meal, and breathes 
upon them prayers for the welfare of the house to be 

1 Two Years in the French West Indies, Lafcadio Hearne, p. 
376. 

2 Etruscan Roman Remains, Charles Godfrey Leland, p. 
322. a ibid., p. 323.; 



70 Foundation Rites. 

built and those who are to occupy it. The name of 
these feathers is Nakwakwoci, and means a breathed 
prayer. The prayers are addressed to Masauwu, the 
sun, and other deities concerned in house-life. These 
feathers are placed at the four corners of the house 
and a large stone is placed over each of them. The 
builder then decides where the door is to be located, 
and marks the place by setting some food on each side 
of it. He passes round the site sprinkling piki crumbs 
and other food, mixed with tobacco, along the lines 
to be occupied by the walls. As he sprinkles the 
offering he sings his Kitdauwi, house-song : " Si-ai, 
a-hi, si-ai, a-hai." 1 

In the Masonic ceremony of laying the foundation, 
the Grand Treasurer places under the stone various 
sorts of coins and medals, amidst solemn music the 
stone is let down to its place, the Grand Master applies 
the plumb, square and level to the stone, in their 
proper positions, and pronounces it to be " well formed, 
true and trusty," then from the gold and silver vessels, 
the Grand Master, " according to ancient ceremony, 
pours the corn, the wine, and the oil on the stone," 
invoking a blessing upon the people, and assistance of 
the higher powers in the erection and completion of 
the structure, and protection for the workmen in their 
labor, and preservation from decay for the building. 
He then strikes the stone thrice with his mallet. The 
corn is emblematic of nourishment, the wine of re- 
freshment, and the oil of joy. 2 In commenting upon 

1 The American Antiquarian, vol. xviii., pp. 18, 19. 

2 Encyclopedia of Masonry, p. 187 ; The Masonic Manual, 
Robert Macoy, pp. 125, 126. 



Substitution of Vegetable Products. 71 

this ceremony , and with particular reference to the 
burying of the coins and medals and pictures, Mr. 
Speth observes : " I do not assert that one in a hundred 
is conscious of what he is doing ; if you ask him he 
will give some different reason ; but the fact remains 
that unconsciously, we are following the customs of 
our fathers, and symbolically providing a soul for the 
structure. 1 The oil and wine and corn have taken the 
place of the blood of the primitive sacrifice, and in the 
language of the following closing lines of a hymn 
used in concluding the ceremony of laying the corner 
stone, we are almost unconsciously carried back to the 
early belief that the foundation must be built on a 
living being : 

" On Him, this corner stone we build, 
To Him, this edifice erect ; 
And still, until this work's fulfill'd, 
May Heaven the workman's ways direct." 2 

1 Builders' Rites, p. 22. 2 Masonic Manual, p. 296. 



72 Foundation Rites. 



CHAPTER VI. 

IMAGES. 

Ik preceding chapters 1 we have referred to the 
curious animistic belief quite generally accepted by 
primitive races, in accordance with which, inanimate 
objects are regarded as having life, or spirit, or soul. 
It can hardly be questioned that this conception of life 
is primarily associated with the earliest sacrificial rites 
pertaining to building. Some further observations upon 
the character of this early belief seem essential to a 
proper consideration of the substitution of images for 
men and beasts in these ceremonies. 

According to ancient division, soul was the life of the 
senses, or animal life, as distinct from body, on the one 
hand, and spirit, on the other. 2 Paul to the Thessa- 
lonians, asks the preservation of the whole " spirit and 
soul and body." s Body was the habitat of soul which 
went out when a man died, as one forsakes a burning 
house. 4 This is characterized by Mr. Tylor as " the 
ethereal, surviving soul of early culture." Says he : 
" The soul, as recognized in the philosophy of the lower 
races, may be defined as an ethereal surviving being, 

1 Chapters i. and v. 

2 Capias and His Contemporaries, Edward H. Hall, p. 142, 
note. 

3 I. Thessalonians v. 23. 

4 Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 16, note. 



Images. 73 

conceptions of which preceded and led up to the more 
transcendental theory of the immaterial and immortal 
soul which forms part of the theology of higher nations." 1 
The Roman poet Lucretius discusses the question 
whether souls when men die hunt for particular atoms 
of worms, and build for themselves carcasses in which 
they may dwell, or whether they infuse themselves into 
bodies already made. The science of his day could not 
comprehend the possibility of myriads of living worms 
in the decaying body without some fragment of its life 
being left in it at death to animate them. 2 In view 
of the dangers arising from the transmission of the soul 
from one body to another, the poet asks : 

" Can, then, the soul, thus impotent of frame, 
When once disrobed, abandoned, and exposed, 
Through the wide air, to every boisterous breeze, 
Can it then triumph, dost thou firmly deem, 
Not o'er all time, but e'en one moment live ? " 3 

It was sometimes held that the soul was multiple. 
Some of them might perish at death but one at least 
survived indefinitely, and was transferred to some new 
sphere of activity, its power to do good or evil being 
thereby increased. 4 As with man so " each bird, each 
bush, each rock has its own vital principle." 8 It was 
sometimes identified with a man's breath. 8 The dying 
man might transfer it to another. Hence they would 
sometimes crowd around the dying man to catch his 

1 Primitive Culture, vol. ii. , p. 24. 

2 Watson's Translations, Bohn, p. 130. 

3 Good's Translation, Bohn, p. 376. 

4 Tlie Religion of Primitive Peoples, D. G. Brinton, p. 71. 
6 Ibid., 63. e Ibid., 72. 



74 Foundation Rites. 

soul. 1 The sister of Dido exclaims, "If there still re- 
mains any last fluttering breath I will catch it with my 
lips." 2 Says Professor Frazer : "The houses in Nias 
are raised above the ground on posts, and it has happened 
that when the dying man lay with his face on the floor, 
one of the candidates has bored a hole in the floor and 
sucked in the chief's last breath through a bamboo 
tube." 3 The soul of a man might be transferred to his 
statue, or his image, or to a tree. 

The soul of a tree might take up its abode in another 
tree. Some tribes when cutting down a tree, would 
leave one twig standing, or plant another tree, that the 
spirit might not be rendered homeless. If a spirit for- 
sook a tree, or having left it for some purpose, forgot 
its way back, the tree would die. 4 The nineteenth Dyn- 
asty Egyptian tale of the two brothers relates that Bata 
placed his soul in a cedar tree for safekeeping, but 
when the tree was cut down, he fell dead. 5 The perma- 
nent loss of the soul meant swift destruction. ' ' For what 
is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and 
lose-his own soul ? " 6 The conclusion follows in prim- 
itive thought, that to insure the stability and perma- 
nence of anything, say of a new house, it was necessary 
to provide it with a soul of its own. The safety of the 
building was the primary object and this was essential 
to effect it. 

1 The Golden Bough, vol. i., p. 238. 
8 Virgil's JEneid, Bohn, iv. 238. 

3 Golden Bough, vol. i., p. 238. 

4 Builders 1 Bites, p. 2. 

6 Religion and Conscience in Ancient Egypt, W. M. Flin- 
ders Petrie, p. 35 ; Records of the Past, vol. ii., p. 147. 
6 Matthew xvi. 26. 



I 



Images. 75 

The soul of a dying chief was sometimes caught in a 
bag, which was fastened to an image made to represent 
the deceased. The soul would then pass into the image. 1 
The escape of the soul was thought to be by the open- 
ings of the body. In Celebes, they sometimes fasten 
fishhooks to a sick man's nose, navel and feet, so that 
if his soul should try to escape, it may be hooked and 
held fast. 2 A Haida medicine-man carries a hollow tube 
in which he bottles up lost souls and restores them to 
their owners. A picture in a Eussian Bible of the 
seventeenth century shows Lazarus looking on smiling 
while the Evil One pulls with a long hook the soul of 
Dives away, to the music of the drum, accompanied with 
the groans of other imps. 3 In a Terra Cotta from 
Melos, of Perseus with the head of the decapitated Me- 
dusa, the soul of Medusa is represented by a small figure 
rising out of the headless body and reaching for the 
head. 4 

When the Prophet Zoroaster converted King Vish- 
taspa, one of the stipulations the king sought to make 
with the prophet before he accepted the new Faith, 
was that his soul should not leave his body until 
the resurrection. In this way he would thwart his 
enemies should they by any witchcraft seek to rob him 
of his soul, and so bring about his destruction. 5 

It was a very ancient belief that if an image was 
made of a man and any injury was inflicted upon the 

1 Golden Bough, vol. i., p. 239. 

2 Ibid., vol. i., p. 123. 

3 Demonology and Devil Lore, M. D. Conway, vol. i., p. 201. 

4 TJie Open Court, Nov., 1898. 

5 Zoroaster, A. V. W, Jackson, p. 65. 



76 Foundation Rites. 

image, the living man would be afflicted in a corre- 
sponding manner. If the image was gradually con- 
sumed the man would pine away and die. One of the 
Babylonian tablets contains a < formula for exorcis- 
ing evil spirits who make images to work evil with. 
It reads : " He who makes an image which injures the 
man, an evil face, an evil eye, an evil mouth, an evil 
tongue, evil lips, an evil poison, spirit of earth, re- 
member, spirit of heaven, remember/' 1 In the Code of 
Alonzo, the wise, of Castile, in the thirteenth century, 
this use of images was condemned as causing death or 
permanent infirmity to those against whom they were 
used. The law condemned to death those who made 
use of them. However, those who used images for 
good purposes, for casting out devils, for removing 
ligatures, for dissolving hail-clouds or fog, or for 
destroying locusts and caterpillars were not punished. 2 
In 1317, Pope John XXII. issued a bull against science 
and magic in which he asserted that an attempt had 
been made to kill him by piercing a waxen image of 
him with needles in the name of the devil. 3 With the 
Dacotahs of North America when any one was ill an 
image of his disease, a boil or what not, was carved in 
wood. This image was then placed in a bowl of water 
and shot at with a gun. When the image was de- 
stroyed the disease disappeared. 4 The Philistines made 

1 Records of the Past, vol. i., p. 136. 

2 History of the Inquisition, Henry Charles Lea, vol. iii., p. 
430. 

3 Warfare of Science with Theology, Andrew D. White, vol. 
i., p. 384. 

4 Myth, Ritual and Religion, Andrew Lang, Silver Library, 
vol. i. p. 99. 



Images. 77 

images of their emerods and their mice and stowed 
them away in the ark in order to get rid of them. 1 
Eed-Indians and Australians make images of bears and 
kangaroos and spear them in order to ensure success in 
the hunt. 2 

April 26, 1315, Enguerrand de Marigny was arraigned 
at Vincennes before a council of nobles, and condemned 
to death, and executed on the 30th, on the charge of 
instigating his wife and sister to employ a certain man 
and woman to make waxen images of the young King 
Louis Hustin, and other personages, for the purpose of 
causing them to wither and die. 3 Jean d'Amant, in 
1317, was tried before Bishop Eeggio charged with 
attempting the life of the Pope, and under torture, 
confessed to fabricating figurines, for that purpose, 
under the command of devils, and was condemned and 
executed. 4 

In 1529 Pierre Eecordi was tried and condemned for 
making wax figurines, with invocations of demons, 
having prepared the images with the blood of toads 
mixed with his own blood and saliva, as a sacrifice to 
Satan, for the purpose of obtaining possession of cer- 
tain women. An image was placed under the threshold 
of the house of a woman he desired to gain control 
of, when, if she did not yield to him, she was tor- 
mented by a demon. When the images had accom- 
plished their work they were tossed in the river, and 
a butterfly was sacrificed to the demon. Recordi was 

1 1. Samuel vi. 4, 5. 

2 Myth, Ritual and Religion, vol. i., p. 100. 

3 History of the Inquisition, vol. iii. , p. 451. 

4 Ibid., vol. iii., p. 452. 



78 Foundation Rites. 

condemned to perpetual imprisonment with chains on 
his hands and feet, in the Carmelite Convent of 
Toulouse. 1 Plato condemned the use of waxen images 
by sorcerers in Greece, where they were set up at the 
cross-roads or affixed to the door of the victim, or 
at the tomb of his ancestors. 2 

Professor Jastrow speaks of the popular use of 
images among the ancient Assyrians. An image of 
the desired victim was made of clay, or pitch, honey, 
fat, or other soft material, and physical torture was 
inflicted upon the person represented by " burning it, 
burying it among the dead, placing it in a coffin, cast- 
ing it into a pit or into a fountain, hiding it in an in- 
accessible place, placing it in spots that had a peculiar 
significance, as the doorposts, the threshold, under 
the arch of gates ; it would prognosticate in this way 
a fate corresponding to one of these acts for the un- 
fortunate victim." 3 

The laws of Draco treated inanimate objects as if 
living beings. They were punished for injuries acci- 
dentally committed. The statue of Theagenes was 
indicted for murder because it finally fell upon one of 
his enemies who persisted in scourging it daily, and 
killed him. Under the law it was thrown into the sea. 4 

One phase of the curious belief in relation to the 
soul in the thought of primitive people, is manifested in 
the formerly widespread custom of sacrifice at tombs. 
Small wooden figures are found in mummy cases which 

1 History of the Inquisition, vol. iii., p. 456. 

2 Ibid., vol. iii., p. 389. 

3 The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 268. 

4 Pausanias, book vi. , chap. ii. 



Images. 79 

are supposed to represent servants who accompanied 
their master to the realm of the departed, in order to 
serve him there. They were termed by the Egyptians 
ushebte, (i answerers," that is, those who would an- 
swer for the departed, and perform work for him. 1 

Slaves and concubines were immolated at the 
funeral of a chief of the Aztecs. At the obsequies of the 
Chichimec rulers the guardian of the domestic idols 
was the first victim sacrificed. Two male slaves and 
three women were sacrificed among the Miztecs. In 
Michoacan seven women were sacrificed at the death 
of the chief. All were to serve him. In the honor of 
JSTezahualpilli two hundred men and a hundred women 
were offered up. 2 On the death of an Inca, the body 
was embalmed and removed to the temple of the sun 
at Cuzco, but the bowels were taken from the body 
to the temple of Tampu, five leagues away from the 
capital, and with them were buried plate and jewels, 
and sometimes a thousand servants and concubines. 3 

Some slaves -are sacrificed at once when a person of 
consequence dies among the Ashantees so that he may 
have immediate attendance. A sufficient number of 
attendants are provided for him later. Heads of 
victims are placed at the bottom of the grave. Some 
of the lookers-on are called to assist in arranging 
the coffin or basket, and just as it rests upon the 
heads, a stone from behind stuns one of the assist- 
ants, followed by a cut in the back of the neck, 

1 Biblical Antiquities, Smithsonian Institution Publication, 
p. 1003 ; The Mummy, E. A. Wallis Budge, pp. 211, 215. 

2 Pre-Historic America , Marquis de Nadaillac, p. 304. 

3 History of Peru, W. H. Prescott, vol. i., pp. 33, 34. 



80 Foundation Rites. 

when he is rolled into the grave which is filled up at 
once. 1 

According to the Nilus' account, the holy camel 
was sacrificed by the Arabs upon a rude cairn, or heap 
of stones, and Grant Allen thinks this primitive altar 
was the grave of a chieftain of the tribe. 2 

Egyptians of wealth and standing sacrificed their 
servants at the tomb so that they might follow their 
masters, as helpers, and be ready to till the fields of 
Aalu. Their bodies were embalmed and their statues 
placed in the tomb, prayers were inscribed for them, 
and they were expected to serve their masters faith- 
fully in the next world in recompense for the care be- 
stowed upon their mortal remains. In later times the 
mummiform statuettes already referred to took the 
place of human sacrifices. 3 

Gonds of India sometimes make straw-men and 
sacrifice as substitutes for human sacrifice. An Indian 
law-book prescribes that when the sacrifice of lions, 
tigers or human beings is required, an image of a 
lion, tiger, or man shall be made with butter, paste or 
barley meal, and sacrificed instead. 4 

A story is told by Marco Polo illustrating the belief 
that the life or soul can be transferred to the image, 
and the image substituted for the living person. In 
describing the burial custom of the better class of peo- 
ple in the city of Sachion in one of the provinces of 
the Great Khan, he says : " When the body is carried 

1 History of Religions, Thomas Williams, 1823, p. 27. 

2 Idea of God, Grant Allen, p. 333. 

3 Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, A Wiedeman, pp. 254, 
355. * Golden Bough, vol. i., p. 252. 



Images. 81 

through the city to be buried without, wooden cottages 
are erected in the way, with a porch covered with silk, 
in which they place the body, and set before it bread, 
flesh and delicate meats, supposing the spirit to be 
refreshed therewith, which is held to be constantly 
present at the burying of the body ; and when they 
come to the place where the body is to be buried, they 
diligently and curiously paint upon papers made of 
the bark of trees the images of men and women, horses, 
camels, money and garments, all the instruments of 
the city sounding, which are burned together with the 
dead body ; for they say, the dead man shall have so 
many man-servants, and maid-servants, and cattle, and 
money, in another life, as pictures of them were burned 
with him, and shall perpetually live in that honor and 
riches." 1 

The same author also tells us that all the great 
Khans and Princes of the blood of Zingis are carried 
to the mountain of Altai to be buried, wherever they 
may die, although it may be a great distance. Those 
who carry the corpse to the burial-place kill all with 
whom they meet, commanding them to go and serve 
the King in another life. They also kill the best 
horses with which they meet. "When the body of one 
of the great Khans was carried to the mountain ten 
thousand people were slain by the soldiers on the occa- 
sion, to furnish the king an army in the other world. 2 
The horse of Baldur and his dwarf were burned with 
his body. 3 On the funeral pyre of Patroklos Achilles 

1 Voyages of Marco Polo, chap. xi. 

2 Ibid., chap. xiii. 

3 Mallet's Northern Antiquities, Bohn, p. 448. 
6 



82 Foundation Rites. 

placed the horses and hounds of the dead warrior. 1 It 
is but a little more than a hundred years since at the 
funeral of a cavalry general at Treves, his horse was 
led in the procession and killed at the grave and thrown 
upon the coffin. 2 " A cook, a groom, a page, a courier, 
and horses " were buried with the Scythian kings, ac- 
cording to the oldest of historians. 3 Riderless horses 
in the funeral procession of dead soldiers are modern 
survivals of the ancient rite. 

The artistic representation of the soul as a small 
human image has already been mentioned. This con- 
ception was common to many districts of the East. 
" The idea of a soul as a sort of thumbling is familiar 
to the Hindus and to German folk-lore." 4 We have 
spoken of the anxiety of King Yishtaspa lest his soul 
should escape from his body into the hands of his 
enemies. During the sleeping hours it was especially 
liable to wander away. If detained beyond a certain 
time its owner sickened and died. 5 Other wandering 
souls might take possession of its habitation during its 
absence. It might fall into the hands of unscrupulous 
mercenaries and be held for reward, or purposes of 
magic. It might meet with injury inflicted for re- 
venge by an enemy, and then the owner would die. 
By artful contrivances these souls were sometimes en- 
ticed away from their rightful homes. 

A study of this widely-spread belief throws light on 
the language of the Prophet. It seems to me unques- 
tionable, that it was these traffickers in souls which 

1 Iliad, xxiii. 175. 2 Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 474. 

8 Herodotus, iv., 71, Gary's translation. 

* Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 450, note. 5 Ibid., i. 438. 



_ 



Images. 83 

the prophet Ezekiel condemns : " Woe to the women 
that sew pillows to all armholes, (amulets on all wrists), 1 
and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature 
(fillets for the heads of persons of every height) to 
hunt souls ! Will ye hunt the souls of my people, and 
will ye save the souls alive that come unto you ? 2 

And will ye pollute me among my people for hand- 
fuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls 
that should not die, and to save the souls alive that 
should not live, by your lying to my people that hear 
your lies ? 3 

Wherefore thus saith the Lord God ; Behold, I am 
against your pillows, wherewith ye there hunt the souls 
to make them fly, and I will tear them from your arms, 
and will let the souls go, even the souls that ye hunt 
to make them fly. 

Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and deliver my peo- 
ple out of your hand, and they shall be no more in 
your hand to be hunted ; and ye shall know that I am 
the Lord." 4 

1 Polychrome Ezekiel, C. H. Toy, xiii. 18. Amulet is ex- 
plained in a note as a magic wristband in which a spirit is 
supposed to dwell. 

2 Professor Toy says the last clause cannot be satisfactorily 
translated and better be omitted. Notes to chapter 13. The 
meaning is clear, however, as rendered in the King James 
version, if the interpretation here given is correct. 

3 It is probable that the translators of the King James ver- 
sion believed in the actuality of these transactions with souls. 
It will be remembered that, in their dedication, they exalted 
the King for his book in defense of the belief in "Witchcraft, 
which he had written in answer to the work of Reginald 
Scott, who pronounced it a delusion. 

4 -Ezekiel, King James' Translation, xiii. 18-21. 



84 Foundation Rites. 

Mary Kingsley says that the Negroes on the West 
Coast of Africa are continually setting traps to catch 
the souls which wander from bodies of those who are 
asleep. When they have caught the soul they tie it up 
over the canoe fire and the owner sickens and dies. 
The trapper cares not whose soul he has caught. It is 
a matter of business with him. He holds it for reward 
and will only deliver it up on payment of his fees. 
Some witch doctors keep asylums for the entertainment 
of lost souls which have been wandering, and on return, 
found the bodies to which they belonged occupied by 
trespassing souls. These professionals harbor these 
strayed outcasts, and finally dispose of them to parties 
who have been bereft in like manner. Sometimes a 
trap is set for some particular soul which they desire 
to gain possession of. The trap is carefully baited. 
Knives and sharp hooks are concealed in the bottom of 
it when the trap is set for some one whom they wish to 
injure or destroy. If in this way they succeed in lac- 
erating or damaging the soul, even if it returns to its 
proper owner, he will then sicken and die. 1 

A similar belief is found at Ilea, one of the Loyalty 
Islands. It is said they formerly had soul-doctors who 
were sent for when a man was ill, to restore souls to 
forsaken bodies. The doctor when sent for with his 
assistants to the number of twenty or more went to the 
burial-place of the family of the sick man, and arriving 
there, commenced playing on their nasal flutes to entice 
back the fugitive spirit to its old tenement. The women 
assisted by whistling. Finally the procession moved 
towards the dwelling of the invalid, playing their flutes 

1 Travels in Western Africa, Mary H. Kingsley, p. 462. 



1 



Images. 85 

and whistling, and so enticing back the truant spirit, 
which as they entered the house was peremptorily 
ordered to enter the body of the sick man. 1 

Among the Karens the " Wi " has the power of re- 
viving the dead or dying, but he must first catch the 
spirit of some person alive and divert it to the dead 
one. 2 

These crude ideas of early races in relation to the 
soul or life have been dwelt upon to a considerable ex- 
tent, for to them is traced the origin of the belief in 
the efficacy and potency of images as substitutes for 
living beings. It remains to point out some traces of 
this substitution in the rites under consideration, in 
ancient and modern times. 

The ancient Eomans were accustomed to place 
statues and images, as substitutes for living persons, 
under the foundations of their buildings. 3 Mr. Speth 
says : " In Kome many statues have been found in 
foundations, actually hidden from sight, although good 
works of art." 4 A fine statue was unearthed at the 
foundations of a convent which was being enlarged. 
It was carefully buried again by order of the monks 
who were superintending the work, in deference to the 
primitive belief of those who had originally placed it 
there. 5 " At Rome models in wax or dough often took 

1 Principles of Sociology, Herbert Spencer, vol. i., p. 777, 
quoting from W. W. Gill's Myths and Songs from the South 
Pacific. 

2 Ibid., p. 777, on authority of Dalton's Ethnology of Bengal. 

8 TJie TJireshold Covenant, p. 56. 

4 Builders' Rites, p. 9. 

5 The Threshold Covenant, p. 56. 



86 Foundation Rites. 

the place of animals. The same thing took place at 
Athens. " ' The successors of the Hindu Rajahs who laid 
their foundations in blood, sacrificed effigies of dried 
milk, according to the formula laid down in the later 
books. 3 

1 Religion of the Semites, p. 222, note. 
a Builders' Rites, p. 45. 



ii 



Images. 87 



CHAPTER VII. 
images (continued). 

Ik the Early and Middle Ages the science of the stars 
was supposed to exert a potent influence on all things 
human and terrestrial. Divination by points or circles 
made on the earth, or by casting figures, directed build- 
ers rightly. A Chinese author says, if bridges are not 
placed in proper position, such as the laws of geomancy 
indicate, they endanger the lives of thousands, by 
bringing about a visitation of smallpox, or sore eyes. 1 
Books of geomancy, necromancy, and books of the 
Images were accepted authorities in the Middle Ages. 
Savonarola says every prelate had his astrologer and the 
Church itself was governed by astrology, at the end of 
the fifteenth century. 3 If the foundations of a house 
were to be laid, the astrologer stood by with his astro- 
labe to take the stars. 

The foundation of a city among the ancient Assyrians 
was a religious act. The preliminary operations were 
to be conducted with great care. Even the maledic- 
tions of the former owners of the soil might bring ill- 
luck upon the new city. " Each detail in the arrange- 
ments/' says Maspero, " is marked by long and com- 
plicated rites. It does not suffice to trace out an 

1 Demonology and Devil Lore, M. D. Conway, vol. i. , p. 204. 

2 History of the Inquisition, Charles Henry Lea, vol. iii., 

p. 438. 



88 Foundation Rites. 

enclosure, to plan streets, to open markets, to assemble 
haphazard several thousands of families ; if the 
founder wishes that his work should last and prosper, 
he must draw within its walls not only a human popu- 
lation, but a divine one, too ; he must invoke a number 
of gods, who will not leave the town and will undertake 
to protect the inhabitants." 1 Therefore, when Sargon, 
the great King of Assyria, in the twelfth year of his 
reign, founded the capital city of Dur-Sarginu, before' 
beginning his operations, he devoutly consulted Hea, 
the king of the gods, and his sister Damkou. He 
went to the temple of Ishtar, Queen of Nineveh, and 
implored her blessing upon his scheme. Finding favor 
in her eyes, and receiving assurances of her assistance, 
he assembled his laborers and collected his materials. 
The city was laid out and its sides were traced with 
angles corresponding to the four points of heaven. To 
sanctify this structure and avert evil influences, figur- 
ines in baked clay, representing the great gods of the 
country, and cylinders and amulets were placed in 
various parts of it and in the openings for the gate- 
ways. 2 The very bricks for public buildings were holy 
things. They could only be made at certain seasons of 
the year, and must be prepared under the auspices of 
the lord of foundations, the god Sivan, in the month 
which bore his name. " The King, therefore, came 
during the first days of Sivan, and encamped with a 
large suite in the plain of Magganoubba. An altar had 
been erected ; he lit the fire, poured a libation in to 
the consecrated brass vase, killed a bull, and with 

1 Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria, G. Maspero, p. 193. 

2 Ibid., p. 196. 



Images. 89 

uplifted hands he prayed that Sivan and his father, 
Bel, the architect of the universe, would consent to 
direct the works." 1 Long afterwards, when it is 
finished, each of the gates is dedicated to one of the 
principal gods of the city, and the huge winged bulls, 
with human heads, are placed against the inner walls 
to stand as " the mystic guardians of the city," and to 
"ward off not only the attacks of men, but the inva- 
sion of evil spirits and of pernicious maladies." 2 

As figures of composite animals of stone or metal, 
sometimes of colossal size, were placed at the entrances 
of the temple of the gods and the palaces of kings, by 
the Assyrians, which were considered as emblems of 
divine power, and believed to exclude all evil, 3 so lions 
were placed on either side of the steps of the gilded 
ivory throne of Solomon. There were six steps, and 
there were stays on either side on the place of the seat, 
and two lions beside the stays. Twelve lions stood 
upon either side. 4 The winged composite figures of 
the Assyrians are connected by Assyriologists with the 
creatures seen in the vision of Ezekiel, and with the 
cherubim guarding the entrance to the Garden of Eden, 
and with those carved on the Ark of the Covenant. 5 
Says Professor Toy : " The form of the creatures is 
made up by the Prophet's imagination out of Baby- 
lonian material ; they bear a close resemblance (except 
in their upright form) to the guardian deity. Such 
composite forms, which go back to a remote antiquity, 

1 Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria, p. 200. 

2 Ibid. 

3 Biblical Antiquities, Smithsonian Publication, p. 1008. 
* I Kings x. 19, 20. * Biblical Antiquities, p. 1008. 



90 Foundation Rites. 

came originally from the old animal- worship." * Mr. 
E. B. Tylor says : "It is improbable that at the time 
of Ezekiel there were any other types in the world 
answering the description of the four wings and the 
hands below them, except such Babylonian-Assyrian 
winged deities, and the adaptations of them by neigh- 
boring nations. 2 Of the Assyrian winged beings car- 
rying fertilizing cones in their hands, before the sacred 
palm-tree, which were conspicuous on the palace walls 
of Nineveh, Mr. Tylor says, " In more degenerate forms 
the art-student may trace the influence of such groups 
in the ornamentation of the Eenaissance, as in the 
Loggie of the Vatican." 3 They are " the predecessors 
of the winged genii whose graceful forms pervade 
Greek, Etruscan, and Eoman art. In later times when 
Christianity became an imperial religion, the Victories 
and Cupids and guardian genii of pagan Kome with slight 
change gave rise to the Christian angels, and as such have 
ever since retained their artistic place. " 4 The Assyrian 
palm-tree separated from the winged deities whose 
office was to make it fruitful, has made its way over 
the world, and given rise to the conventional Greek 
ornament called the "honeysuckle." " Eeduced to 
mere decoration, this pattern pervades modern build- 
ings and furniture, repeated with wearisome iteration 
by craftsmen from whose minds the sense of original 
meaning in ornament has long since died out. It is 
curious to see sometimes on a church wall the honey- 
suckle pattern bordering a space round sculptured 

1 Polychrome Ezekiel, C. H. Toy, p. 95, note 6, chap. 1. 

2 Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology, June 3, 
1890, p. 391. 8 Ibid., p. 392. 4 Ibid., p. 393. 



Images. 91 

angels, and to remember how far off and how long ago 
it was that the ancestor of the angel tended the an- 
cestor of the plant." ' 

The ancient Egyptians believed the gods themselves 
inhabited statues or figures made in their honor. 2 
The custom of placing figures in temples and tombs is 
as old as the settlement of the Egyptians in Egypt. 3 
By taking with him to the tomb the statuette of any god, 
the deceased placed himself under the sj)ecial protection 
of that deity, who would help him according to his 
power in the world to come. The greater the number 
and variety of gods he took with him, the more sure 
was he that the power of one would supplement that of 
another. These statues were supposed to be changed 
into real gods in the underworld, who would hasten to 
his service when properly invoked. 4 

Images of divinities were placed in secret cavities in 
the walls of the houses which were supposed to be able 
by their influence to protect from evil influences the 
inhabitants of the dwelling. They were also buried in 
sand around the temples for the same purpose. 5 The 
secret cell in the walls for the images in a temple at 
Dabod, is described by Miss Edwards : " Adjoining the 
sanctuary is a dark side-chamber ; in the floor of the 
side-chamber is a pit, once paved over ; in one corner 
of the pit is a man-hole opening into a narrow passage ; 
and in the narrow passage are steps leading up to a 

1 Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology, June 3, 
1890. 

2 The Mummy, E. A. Wallis Budge, p. 267. 3 Ibid. , p. 303. 

4 Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, A. Wiedemann, p. 296. 
& The Mummy, pp. 267, 269. 



92 Foundation Rites. 

secret chamber constructed in the thickness of the 
wall." A block of masonry closes the secret entrance 
so perfectly as to defy detection. 1 

Figures of the kings were placed in the temples and 
honored with services and offerings. According to the 
Kosetta stone the priests of all Egypt decreed that a 
figure or statue of Ptolemy V. Epiphanes, should be 
placed in the most conspicuous part of every temple, 
and service be performed three times daily before it. 2 
Nineteen statues of Ti, a gentleman of the Fifth 
Dynasty, were found immured in the walls of his tomb. 3 
A hiding place without inlet or outlet was constructed 
for the accommodation of these statues in the thickness 
of the wall of the tomb. 4 "Every sculptured statue, 
every painted portrait, whether of a living person or 
of a dead person, was regarded as a supplementary 
body dedicated to the service of the Ka," & which 
Miss Edwards defines as the life or vital principle. 6 

Images of the gods of vanquished people were carried 
home by their conquerors, among ancient nations. 
The captivity of the god was the humiliation of its 
worshipers. It was practised by the Persians, the 
Greeks and the Eomans. 7 A temple was appropriated 
to the idols of conquered nations in the city of 
Mexico. 8 The Peruvians carried to the temple of the 

1 A Thousand Miles up the Nile, Amelia B. Edwards, vol. ii., 
p. 166. 2 The Mummy, p. 301. 

3 Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers, Amelia B. Edwards, 
p. 140. * Ibid., p. 116. 

5 Ibid., p. 134. 6 Ibid., p. 129. 

7 Pausanias' Description of Greece, vol. viii., p. 46. 

8 Myths of the New World, p. 332. 



Images. 93 

sun at Cuzco images of deities of nations over whom 
they were victorious, and, held in captivity, they ranked 
among the inferior gods of their conquerors. * Through 
the possession of their images the help and favor and 
protection of the gods they represented would be ob- 
tained. For this Eachel stole the Teraphim. 2 On the 
trial of Bridget Bishop for witchcraft, in New England, 
it was proven, that "poppets made up of rags and hog's 
bristles " stuck with headless pins, points outward, 
were entombed in her cellar-walls. 3 

"The great powers of evil, " says Leland, "among 
whom was death, were more afraid of their own like- 
nesses than of anything else, for which reason horrible 
figures were placed here and there to protect all houses," 
among the Babylonian and Ninevite peoples. In this 
way the same author accounts for the presence of odd 
and puzzling figures, in Christian churches in the 
Middle Ages. It was a " manifold application of the 
principle of homeopathy," according to the lore of the 
time, "the driving out of devils by devils." 4 

A hideous statue with a club stands at each of the 
four corners of the city walls of Mandalay, a survival 
of the ancient custom of the old Burmese kings, who 
buried a man alive at each of the corners of the walls 
of their capital city for its protection. 5 

1 Prescott's Conquest of Peru, vol. i., p. 78. 

2 Genesis, xxx. 19. 

3 Wonders of the Invisible World, Cotton Mather, p. 137; 
Tlie Magnalia, ii. 397. 

4 Etruscan Roman Remains, C. G. Leland, p. 306. 

5 Builders' Rites, p. 43, on authority of a paper read before 
the Ninth International Congress of Orientalists, in 1892. 



94 Foundation Rites. 

In 1885, in the Anglo-Burmese war, King Thibaw 
employed Brahman astrologers, to establish a cordon of 
spiritual guards, by their incantations, round the palace 
stockade, that they might protect the royal inmates 
and drive back the British soldiery. 1 

The Lacedemonians erected a statue of Enyalius, the 
war-god, in fetters, believing that, in this way, they 
could always retain him with them to conquer their 
enemies. 2 

There were discovered a few years ago, in the interior 
of a bastion of London wall, figures and sculptures 
which are preserved in the Museum at Guildhall. 3 
When the north wall of the parish church of Chumleigh 
in North Devon, was taken down a few years ago, there 
was found in it a very early carved figure of Christ 
crucified to a vine, or interlacing tree. The north wall 
having been falling in the fifteenth century, had been 
re-erected, and this figure was laid in it, and the wall 
built over it. 4 There have been found immured in 
foundation walls in Holland rude objects resembling 
nine-pins, which were thought to be rude imitations 
of babes in swaddling clothes, substituted for living 
children. 6 

Painted images on the walls, and sculptured images 
built into the walls, of temples and churches, have been 
common from the remotest historical times, although 
the primary ideas of utility connected with their 
primitive use has been lost sight of in later times, and 



1 Builders' Rites, p. 43. 

2 Pausanias' Description of Greece, book iii., chap. 15. 

3 Builders' Rites, p. 10. 4 On Foundations. 5 Ibid. 



Images. 95 

they have come to be regarded largely as artistic adorn- 
ments. 

The image of the Virgin with a light before her, in 
a house in St. Pierre Martinique, is believed by the 
natives to entice the Virgin in, to bless the occupants, 
when she walks the street in her daily visitation, at six 
o'clock. 1 

For the protection of the great one-story wooden 
communal buildings of the pueblo on the Northwest 
Coast, the main house-posts of fir, two or more feet 
square, ten feet tall, were carved to represent the 
thunder bird, the lightning snake, Dokibatl the 
Changer, or some other mythological character, or 
some family totem. 2 

The Swastika which some suppose to have been the 
earliest form of the cross, is said to have been carved 
on the temples, and other edifices of Mexico and Central 
America. 3 It was in use in India, fifteen centuries be- 
fore the Christian era, and is found on a number of 
Buddhist edifices. 4 In India it was placed on the wall 
beside the doorpost to guard against the evil eye. It 
was depicted on the place where the family gods were 
kept, and on the rock walls of the caves. 5 It has been 
found in pre-historic lake dwellings of the bronze age. 6 
A Chinese work says Wu Tsung-Chih, a learned man 
of Sin Shui, built a residence which was named " Wan- 
Chai," because of the Swastika decorations of the 

1 Two Years in the French West Indies, Lafcadio Hearne, 
p. 376. 

2 TJie American Antiquarian, vol. xviii., p. 21. 

3 Tlie Swastika, Smithsonian Publication, p. 797. 

4 Ibid. 5 Ibid., pp. 803, 805. 6 Ibid., p. 806. 



96 Foundation Rites. 

exterior. 1 It was placed on bells of parish churches 
at Appleby, Mexborough, Haythersaye, Waddington, 
Bishop's Norton, West Barkwith, and other places, as a 
magical sign to subdue the vicious spirit of the tempest. 2 

A gigantic sculptured head, seven feet high, has been 
found at Izamal, one of the sacred towns of Yucatan, 
where the traditions of the natives say, the head of the 
prophet Zamna was buried beneath the pyramid known 
as the house of heads and lightnings. 3 At Labna, a 
row of skulls and human figures in stucco adorned the 
chief building, while actual human heads were en- 
shrined in the masonry of the immense pyramid, Tzem- 
pantli. 4 The sculpturing of the great temple of the 
war-god of the Aztecs represented walls of serpents. 6 
The worshiper at the temple of Quetzacoatl gained 
entrance by crawling through the half-open mouth of 
a serpent. 6 Interlaced serpents were sculptured on the 
doors of the palace of the Inca, Huayna-Capac, and 
other buildings at Cuzco. 7 

The hexagonal prism of baked clay preserved in the 
British Museum, which was found near Nineveh on the 
mound of Nebbi Yunus, describes the building of the 
palace of Esarhaddon. Twenty-two kings "of the 
land of Syria " brought "from the mountains of Sirar 
and Lebanon" divine images and bas reliefs for the pal- 
ace. "In a fortunate month, and on a holy day," the 
record reads, " great palaces for the residence of my 
majesty I began to build. Bulls and lions, carved in 

1 The Swastika, p. 801. 2 Ibid., p. 798. 

8 Pre-Historic America, Nadaillac, D'Anvers' translation, 
p. 348. 4 Ibid., pp. 340, 360. 

& Ibid., p. 358. 6 Ibid., p. 359. 7 Ibid., p. 415. 



Images. 97 

stone, which with their majestic mien deter wicked en- 
emies from approaching, the guardians of the footsteps, 
the saviours of the path, of the King who constructed 
them, right and left, I placed them at the gates." 
Lionesses of bronze on sculptured bases were placed 
within it. " The great building from its foundation to 
its summit, I built and finished, and called it The Pal- 
ace, which rivals the world." Within the Palace was 
placed " the bull of good fortune, the genius of good 
fortune, the guardian of the footsteps " of his Majesty, 
to bring joy to his heart and watch over it forever. 1 

The old Norse Nithing-post was supposed to have 
the power of working evil against the party towards 
whom it was set up, and it would bring destruction 
upon the dwelling towards which it was turned. A 
pole with a horse's head made one of great efficacy. A 
simple twig of the sacred hazel, however, would answer 
for one. It is related in one of the Sagas, that Jokul 
and Thornstein, having accepted a challenge from Fin- 
bogi, went to the place of meeting at the appointed 
time, but when, on account of a storm, their opponents 
did not appear, Jokul resolved to proclaim Finbogi a 
coward, and set up a Nithing-post against him. So 
he fashioned from a block of wood the rude figure of a 
human head, upon it cut magical runes, and fixed it to 
a post. He then killed a mare, opened the breast, and 
stuck the post in it, with the carved head turned to- 
wards Finbogi's dwelling, to bring disgrace and evil upon 
him. 2 When Eigil, in the ninth century, was banished 
from Norway, he took a horse's head and fixed it to a 

1 Records of the Past, vol. iii., pp. 121-123. 

2 Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 156. 

7 



98 Foundation Rites. 

stake which he drove in the ground, and turning the 
head towards the land from which he had heen driven 
he exclaimed : il I turn this my banishment against the 
protecting deities of this country in order that they 
may all of them roam wildly about and never find a rest- 
ing place until they have driven out King Eirek and 
Queen Gunhilda." By this means it was supposed his 
own wrongs would be turned upon those who had caused 
them, and compass their destruction. 1 

The interlacing vine to which the image of Christ 
was crucified, which was embedded in the wall of Chum- 
leigh, has a significance reaching far back into anti- 
quity. The Egyptians held the ivy sacred to Osiris, 
and the Greeks to Dionysus. It crowned the Eoman 
poets. It was the haunt of elves and fairies and had 
medical and magical properties in the Middle Ages. 
Marcellus of Bordeaux prescribed ivy taken from the 
head of a statue, plucked in the waning of the moon, as 
a cure for pain in the head. On the head of Bacchus 
it signified life. Christians laid it in coffins as a sym- 
bol of life. 2 On the walls of castles and towers and 
churches it carried protection from evil spirits which 
haunted them. It survives as a decoration, although its 
primitive significance is forgotten. 

Interlacing vines and branches were foils against 
witches and charms to counteract the effects of the 
Evil Eye. That certain eyes possessed power of fasci- 
nation and of exerting evil influences, is one of the 
most widespread and venerable of human beliefs. It 
is sanctioned by classical authors, physicians and the 

1 Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 156. 

2 Etruscan Roman Remains, pp. 256, 257. 



Images. 99 

Fathers of the Church. Its power is recognized in the 
Hebrew proverb, 1 and by St. Paul. 2 Some Evil Eye 
bewitched the tender lambs of Menalcas. 3 Pope Pius 
IX. was credited with possessing the power, and it is 
said that devout Christians, while receiving his bene- 
diction, with amulets and flexions of the fingers, guard- 
ed themselves against his Evil Eye. 4 

Serpents were painted on the walls of the Etruscans, 5 
to bring good fortune, and counteract the spells of 
Evil Eyes. To be effective they must be interlaced, 
with heads downwards and tails uppermost. They were 
on the walls of Cuzco and the temple of the war-god of 
the Aztecs. 6 

Plaiting the hair in interlaces was in Chaldean magic 
a cure for the headache. Interlaced branches of the 
mulberry- trees protect the silk-worms from the influ- 
ence of the Evil Eye in Italy. Bewildering patterns 
in the carpets avert it in Persia. Rice strewn in the 
form of a cross about the bed secures it from witches 
in South Carolina. A linen cloth fastened to the chim- 
ney, or mustard on the doorsill, answered the same pur- 
pose among the blacks of Missouri. Cords intertwined 
or braided, as well as serpents, guarded the houses 
of the Etruscans. Shoes were made with the stitches 
crossed, and garments with the threads interlaced. 
Braided charms of cotton, or silk, or linen were carried 
in the pockets and sold in the shops. Says Leland, 

1 Proverbs, xxiii. 6. 2 Galatians, iii. i. 

3 Virgil, Eclogue, iii. 

4 The 2Iagic of the Horseshoe, Robert M. Lawrence, p. 13. 

5 Etruscan Roman Remains, p. 168. 

6 Pre-Historic America, p. 127. 

LofC. 



ioo Foundation Rites. 

" this belief possibly enters into the real inspiration of 
all the most decorative art of all Europe, especially of 
the Middle Ages." * 

As sunflowers are emblems of the sun, the image of 
day before which evil spirits flee, therefore an offering 
of them placed on the threshold protects the house. 2 
A hatchet, a pestle and a broom, in the form of a cross 
on the threshold, in a house where a babe is born, pro- 
tects the child from witches. 3 For this purpose coins 
are put under the doorsill when the foundations of a 
building were laid in China. 4 The moon might smite 
with disease or death. 5 Silver was the moon's own 
metal. 6 It were ill-luck not to have silver in the pocket 
when the new moon appeared. 7 When the responses of 
the oracle of the temple of Orapus had healed the af- 
flicted, silver coins were tossed in the fountain. 8 One 
secured the favor of elves and spirits if he passed their 
haunts, by burying silver coins beneath their temples 
of rocks and trees, and repeating : 

" These things I bury 
That I may gratify 
Spirits or witches 
That they may never 
Such things be wanting 
Or go against me, 
Changing my fortune 
From good unto evil." 9 

1 Etruscan Roman Remains, pp. 168-172. 2 Ibid., p. 157. 
3 Ibid., p. 208. 4 The Threshold Covenant, p. 71. 

5 Myths of the Neiv World, p. 117 ; Psalms cxxi. 6. 
« Moon Lore, T. Harley, p. 219. 7 Ibid., p. 218. 

8 Pausanias, book i. , chap. 34. 

9 Etruscan Roman Remains, p. 156. 



Images. 101 

The king's image enhanced the value of the precious 
metal as an offering. It then became a substitute 
for the living sacrifice. 

The Komans placed leaden seals stamped with the 
image of the Emperor in the foundations of their build- 
ings, and a Christian house built in the reign of Joviau, 
the successor of Julian, has been discovered at Kome, 
buried in the walls of which was a leaden seal with the 
image of Christ thereon. 1 Whatever may have been the 
thought in the cultured minds of those who placed the 
images of the Emperor and of Jesus in their foundation 
walls, without doubt they were unconsciously following 
the customs of their ancestors and " symbolically provid- 
ing a soul for the structure." " From the conscious- 
ness of cultured humanity/' says Herbert Spencer, 
" there have so completely disappeared certain notions 
natural to the consciousness of uncultured humanity, 
that it has become almost incredible that they should 
have been ever entertained. Bub just as certain as it 
is that the absurd beliefs at which parents laugh when 
displayed in their children were once their own ; so 
certain is it that advanced peoples, to whom primitive 
conceptions seem ridiculous, had forefathers who held 
these primitive conceptions." 2 

The use of phallic images was widespread in an- 
tiquity. 3 It was observed in various parts of America. 
The women of Paraguay carried an image of the phallus 

1 Magazine of Christian Literature, vol. iii., p. 47, " Dis- 
covery of an early Christian House at Rome," by S. Baring- 
Gould. 

2 Principles of Sociology, vol. ii., p. 694. 

3 Religion of the Semites, p. 438. 



102 Foundation Rites. 

as an amulet. It was found by the soldiers of Cortez 
in relief on the walls of the temples in Panuca. It was 
found among the ruins of Mexico and Yucatan. 1 It 
was found at Uxmal. 2 " Reverence for phallic emblems 
shows itself in the earliest historic remains of Baby- 
lonia, Assyria, India, China, Japan, Persia, Phrygia, 
Phoenicia, Egypt, Abyssinia, Greece, Rome, Germany, 
Scandinavia, France, Spain, Great Britain, North and 
South America, and the Islands of the Sea." 8 

Large quantities of phallic emblems were discovered 
at Tello, by M. de Sarzac, embedded in the walls, and 
also at Nippur. Those at Tello are described as made 
of (i baked clay, like long large-headed nails, some eight 
or nine inches in length," with inscriptions, and " thrust 
into the bitumen mortar between the bricks." Loftus 
found at Warka (ancient Erech) u a wall built entirely 
of these curious nail-headed cones, arranged in pat- 
terns." While but few of these were found at Nippur, 
large numbers of other phallic remains were found " by 
the side of a brick wall near the outer northern corner 
of the temple. This wall was encased in an immense 
mass of mud bricks. . . . The phalli lay along the base 
of the wall in such a manner that it seemed certain they 
must have been pushed into the spaces between the 
bricks, or pressed against the wall, and afterwards fallen 
to the ground." These were of all sizes from a foot or 
more down to an inch, and were made of different ma- 
terials, some clay, some porcelain, some stone, some were 
ornamented and others were plain. Dr. Peters expresses 

i Myths of the New World, pp. 176, 177. 
2 Pre-Historic America, p. 338. 
a The Threshold Covenant, p. 230. 



Images. 103 

the opinion they were connected with the worship of 
Ishtar, and were thrust or built into the wall. 1 Is it 
not probable that these phallic images were foundation 
offerings, and that they were survivals of more barbar- 
ous sacrifices in primitive times ? 

A magazine for the manufacture of these objects in 
large numbers was found at Nippur, 3 and at Lagash, De 
Sarzac found, besides cones, large numbers of copper 
statuettes of gods and goddesses and of animals, all ter- 
minating in a sharp point or attached to a cone-shaped 
object. At one place he found a series of them set up 
in concentric circles in the corners of an edifice and 
under the floor. 3 Professor Jastrow, while not inclined 
to accept these objects as phallic emblems, says " there 
can be no doubt that they were used to be stuck into 
some substance," and that they were placed at various 
parts of a building "asa means of securing the favor 
of the gods." 4 

1 Nippur, John P. Peters, vol. ii., pp. 236, 237. 
2 Religion of Babylonia arid Assyria, Morris Jastrow, Jr., 
p. 670. 
3 Ibid., p. 673. 
* Ibid., p. 673. 



104 Foundation Rites. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

SHADOWS AND SPECTERS. 

To the primitive man, as real as the body itself/ is 
the shadow which it casts upon the wall. The shadow 
is part of the living being, or the life itself. " May 
your shadow never grow less/' is a salutation the con- 
ventional meaning of which is, may prosperity and 
health attend you ; but there is little doubt that its 
original significance was connected with the crude 
thought that a shadowless man was a dead man. In 
the abode of the dead, his shadow betrayed Dante, as 
a living person. 

" As soon as those in the advance saw broken 
The light upon the ground at my right side, 
So that from me the shadow reached the rock, 
They stopped, and backward drew themselves somewhat ; 
And all the others who came after them, 
Not knowing why nor wherefore, did the same. 
Without your askings I confess to you 
This is a human body which you see, 
Whereby the sunshine on the ground is cleft." 2 

The Zulus thought the reason a dead person had no 
shadow was because the shadow was the soul which had 
departed from the body when the person died. 8 Among 

1 Principles of Sociology, Herbert Spencer, vol. i., p. 114. 
2 Longfellow 's Translation, Purgatory of Dante, canto iii. 
8 The Principles of Sociology, vol. i., p. 820. 



Shadows and Specters. 105 

many races the two were identified as the same. The 
same word was frequently employed indifferently to sig- 
nify the soul or the shadow. 1 The Greenlanders say 
the shadow is one of the two souls which a man has, 
and it is the one which wanders away from his body at 
night when he is asleep. 2 The reflection of a man in 
the water or in a mirror was believed to be the soul by 
the Andamanese, the Fijians and many others. The 
Zulus thought a beast dwelt in dark pools which would 
take away a man's reflection and leave him to die. The 
Basutos believed crocodiles had the power to draw the 
reflection under water thereby causing his death. 3 It 
was for this reason that in ancient India and Greece it 
was a maxim that one must not look upon his image in 
water. It was an omen of death to dream of seeing 
one's self so reflected. If the water-spirit dragged the 
reflection underneath the water, he would die soulless. 4 
Mirrors are accursed things, in the opinion of the 
Easkolniks, because they draw out the souls or reflec- 
tions of people, and so facilitate their escape or capture. 5 
The custom of covering up mirrors after a death in the 
house is very widespread, and prevails in many coun- 
tries. The mirror is sometimes covered in the sick 
room. The soul is then prone to take flight, and the 
assistance of the mirror in projecting it out of the 
body might hasten death. 6 As with shadows and re- 
flections so it is with portraits. They are believed to 

1 Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 430. 

2 Principles of Sociology, vol. i., p. 116. 
8 Tlie Golden Bough, vol. i., p. 145. 

* Ibid., vol. i., p. 146. 5 Ibid., vol. i., p. 146 ? 
« Ibid., vol. i,. p. 148. 



io6 Foundation Rites. 

contain the souls of the persons portrayed. It is for 
this reason that natives are unwilling to have their 
portraits taken oftentimes. They fear the loss of the 
soul with the picture, and that death will follow. 
There is a belief among some people of Russia that if 
their silhouettes are taken they will die within the 
year. 1 Instances are given of persons in the West of 
Scotland who fear to lose their health or life by being 
photographed. 2 

In some islands near the equator, where little or no 
shadow is cast at noon, it is considered dangerous to go 
out of the house at midday lest a man may lose his soul. 3 
Magicians in the island of Wetar pretend to be able to 
kill a man by stabbing his shadow. Demons in the 
Babar Islands get possession of a man's soul by secur- 
ing his shadow. 4 A certain hero among the Mangaians 
was easily slain at noon when it was discovered that as 
his shadow shortened, his strength waned. 5 A sacred 
enclosure on Mount Lycseus is said to have had the 
peculiarity that neither man nor beasts ever cast a 
shadow within it. It was believed that if a man entered 
this enclosure he was sure to die within a year. 6 The 
separation of the man from his shadow caused his death. 
If a man forfeited his soul he cast no shadow. In the 
(i Lay of the Last Minstrel," of the magician who had 
learned his art "in Padua, far beyond the sea," the 
poet says : 

1 The Golden Bough, vol. i., p., 149 ; Principles of Sociology, 
vol. i., p. 820. 2 Ibid., vol. i., p. 149. 

3 Ibid., vol. i., p. 142. 4 Ibid. 

5 Ibid., vol. i; p. 143. 

v 6 Pausanias, book viii., chap. 38. 



Shadows and Specters. 107 

" When in studious mood, he paced 
St. Andrews' cloistered hall, 
His form no darkening shadow traced 
Upon the sunny wall. " 1 

Claude Frollo, in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 
speculates on the possibility of making gold from sun- 
beams, and says, " Averoes buried one under the first 
pillar on the left, in the sanctuary of the Koran, in the 
Grand Mosque at Cordova ; but the vault must not be 
opened to see whether the operation has been success- 
ful for the space of eight thousand years." 2 

Sometimes, in Modern Greece, the builder entices a 
man to the foundation stone, secretly measures his 
body, or a part of it, or his shadow, and buries the 
measure under the stone ; or he lays it upon his shadow. 
He will then die in a year. 3 The Bulgarians take a 
thread and measure the shadow of some passer-by. 
The measure is buried under the foundation stone, when 
it is expected the man will soon die. If they caDnot 
get a human shadow they measure the shadow of the 
first animal that passes. 4 They catch the shadow of a 
passing stranger in Eoumania and immure it in the 
wall. The man will die in forty days. There were 
formerly professional shadow-traders who provided 
architects with shadows for making secure the foun- 
dations. 5 

That there is a skeleton in every man's house is an 

1 Lay of the Last Minstrel, Walter Scott, canto i. 

2 Builders' Rites, p. 48. 

3 Golden Bough, vol. i. , p. 144. 

4 Ibid., vol. i., p. 144 ; The Threshold Covenant, p. 54. 

5 Golden Bough, vol. i., p. 144; Evolution of the Idea of 
God, p. 253 ; On Foundations. 



108 Foundation Rites. 

old proverbial saying. " The proverb is a statement," 
says Baring-Gould, " of what at one time was a fact. 
Every house had its skeleton, and every house was in- 
tended to have its skeleton ; and what was more, every 
house was designed to have not only its skeleton, but 
its ghost. . . . At the foundation stone laying of every 
house, castle, or bridge, provision was made to give 
each its presiding, haunting, protecting spirit." 1 
Providing the building with a specter as a spiritual 
guard, in this author's opinion, is a later outgrowth of 
the primarily sacrificial rite. The association of violent 
deaths with haunted buildings is one of the oldest of 
traditions. Longfellow says : 

" All I'-vuses wherein men have lived and died 

Are haunted houses. Through the open doors, 
The harmless phantoms on their errands glide, 
With feet that make no sound upon the floors. 

" Owners and occupants of earlier dates 

From graves forgotten stretch their dusty hands, 
And hold in mortmain still their old estates." 2 

"In ballads and traditions the remembrance is still 
preserved how children and animals were slaughtered 
for the purpose of strengthening large buildings with 
their blood." 3 The house may be deserted by living 
occupants, but the traditional specter lingers among the 
crumbling walls of the decaying structure. 

1 On Foundations. 

2 Haunted Houses, H. W. Longfellow, Household Edition, 
p. 214. 

3 Cornhill Magazine, Feb., 1887, quoted in Kirk-Grims f rom 
Heinrich Heine. 



Shadows and Specters. 109 

She is dead ; her house is dying, 

Silent house with close-locked doors, 
Ghosts and memories haunt thy floors, 

Vagrant children come and go 
'Neath the windows, murmuring low ; 
Peering with impatient eye 
For a ghostly mystery." 1 

In the ballad of the " Count of Keeldar," in the 
Minstrelsy of the Border, the practise of the ancient 
Picts in bathing their foundations in blood is alluded 
to, and the belief that in this rite originated the ghosts 
which haunted them. 

' ' And here beside the mountain flood 
A massy castle frowned 
Since first the Pictish race in blood 
The haunted pile did found." 2 

Specters and ghosts haunted the victims of witches 
only when something unusual had attended the death 
of the party appearing. 8 

" Throughout Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and 
North Germany tradition associates some animal with 
every church, and it goes by the name of the Kirk- 
Grim. These are the goblin apparitions of the beasts 
that were buried under the foundation stones of the 
churches." 4 The writer of the above says that when a 
boy he drew a list of the Kirk-Grims that haunted all 
the neighboring churches. To the church of the parish 

1 The Dying House, by T. W. Higginson, in Atlantic 
Monthly. 2 On Foundations. 

8 The Magnalia, Cotton Mather, vol. i., p. 189, 
4 Kirk-Grims. 



no Foundation Rites. 

in which he lived belonged two white sows yoked to- 
gether with a silver chain ; to another a black dog ; to 
a third a ghostly calf ; to a fourth a white lamb. 1 In 
Swedish tales the specter of the animal sacrificed at the 
foundation wanders in the churchyard, or is seen some- 
times when one enters the church when there is no 
service, as a little lamb "to spring across the quire and 
vanish.'- 2 A black dog haunts Peel Castle in the Isle 
of Man. " Almost certainly its bones lie beneath the 
foundation. Popular superstition acknowledges the 
existence of the specter dog, but forgets how he came 
there." 3 A blood-hound haunts Launceston Castle 
which Baring-Gould believes to be the specter of the 
animal buried under its walls. 4 Dogs were associated 
in the popular belief with foundations in very ancient 
times, and the color of the dog was of great signifi- 
cance. An old Babylonian tablet says : "If a white 
dog enters a temple, the foundation of that temple will 
be firm." Another affirms that if the dog be black 
which enters the temple the foundation of that temple 
will not be firm. If a brown dog or a yellow dog or a 
speckled dog entered a temple it was a favorable omen. 
"If yellow locusts appear in a man's house, the sup- 
ports of that house will fall." 5 Children and white 
ladies haunt houses and castles. These, says the writer 
in Cornhill, " are almost certainly reminiscences of the 
victims buried under the foundations of these build- 
ings." 6 Little white hands sometimes appear instead 

1 Kirk-Orims. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 On Foundations. 

5 Records of the Past, vol. v., p. 169 ; Religion of Babylonia 
and Assyria, Morris Jastrow, Jr., pp. 398, 402. 

6 Kirk-Grims, 



Shadows and Specters. in 

of a child. A house in the west of England is said to 
be visited every cold morning and the marks of little 
fingers left on the pane of glass in the window. Bar- 
ing-Gould is informed of a case where human bones of 
a woman and child were found under the hearth in a 
house where the apparition of a woman in brown and a 
babe were supposed to have been seen. 1 

One of the legends of Odysseus is very suggestive of 
this primitive rite. On his wanderings from Ilium 
he stopped at Temesa, where one of his sailors, for 
a serious offense, was stoned to death by the people, 
unmindful of which, Odysseus sailed away while the 
ghost of the murdered sailor remained to terrify the 
inhabitants until it was finally proposed to abandon the 
town. This the Pythian Priestess forbade them to do, 
but commanded them to build a temple to the ghost of 
the dead hero, and propitiate him by an annual sacrifice 
of the fairest of the girls of Temesa, which being com- 
plied with there was no further trouble with the ghost. 2 
In the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan, Mokanna exclaims: 
" Kings yet unborn shall rue Mokanna's name, 
And, though I die, my spirit, still the same, 
Shall walk abroad in all the stormy strife, 
And guilt, and blood, that were its bliss in life." 

And when Zelica was left, 

" Of those wide walls the only living thing," 

she was like some bloodless ghost such as they tell 

" In the Lone Cities of the Silent dwell, 
And there, unseen of all but Alia, sit 
Each by its own pale carcass, watching it." 3 

1 On Foundations. 

2 Pausanias, book vi., chap. 7 ; Bohn, vol. i., p. 372. 

3 Moore's Lalla Rookh. 



ii2 Foundation Rites. 

The allusion of the poet is to the traditional belief 
that the ghosts of the departed people churchyards and 
each sits at the head of his own grave. In common 
belief the spirits of the dead haunted the place of their 
burial. " As formerly in their huts, so now in their 
graves, the dead would be regarded as the occupiers. 
Their spirits were still living, and would be seen from 
time to time haunting the spot." 1 The tombs of the 
dead in folk-lore tales were the meeting-places of invis- 
ible beings. "The barrows in Denmark were invari- 
ably regarded as the haunts of the fairies." 2 Dead 
soldiers haunt the battle-fields where they fall. In the 
Auersperg Chronicle, under the year 1223, from a 
certain mountain, it is recorded, near Worms, which 
has been identified as the Donnersberg, armed horse- 
men used to issue daily and return. They were ques- 
tioned by a man who armed himself with the sign of 
the cross, and replied that they were not phantoms or 
a band of soldiers, but the souls of slain soldiers. 3 It 
has been suggested that the victim whose remains were 
found in the wall of the church of Holsworthy, in ad- 
dition to making secure the stability of the structure, 
was designed to furnish a ghostly watchman for the 
church and churchyard, ' ' a spiritual policeman, warn- 
ing off robbers and witches." 4 

It is probable that some of the tales of enchant- 
ment of princesses and heroes are but attenuated tradi- 
tions of rites connected with foundations and building. 

1 The Science of Fairy Tales, E. S. Hartland, p. 231. 

2 Ibid., p. 231. 

8 Ibid., p. 216 ; Teutonic Mythology, p. 955. 
4 Kirk-Grims. 



Shadows and Specters. 113 

It is suggested by Mr. Hartland that there is "the survi- 
val of a belief in the enchanted lady as the indwelling 
spirit, the soul, the real life of the spot she haunted." * 
The enchanted princess who haunted the bridge near 
the gate of the town, according to a story of Old Stre- 
litz, might be released from the enchantment if some 
one crossing the bridge should speak the right word to 
her as they walked over it. In this mysterious word 
which none ever found, Mr. Hartland sees the "rem- 
iniscence of an incantation." 2 Of some primitive sacri- 
ficial ceremony long forgotten, the incantation whose 
memory survives in the lost word may have been an 
essential part. A story is related of the building of a 
tower, " once upon a time, in Mazowia," which has 
all the appearance of being a survival of the tradition 
of some foundation sacrifice. Seven chiefs, victors in 
a hundred battles, having grown old, ordered their 
soldiers to build a tower in their honor. For a year 
they built and built, but every day part of the tower 
tumbled down. Finally the chiefs assembled at the 
ruins, and at the sound of lutes and songs the tower 
magically grew from earth to heaven, and on its seven 
pinnacles shone the seven helmets of the leaders, while 
the soldiers sank down into graves which had been dug 
around the tower. 3 

Another kindred story is that of the White Lady who 
haunts the White Tower on the White Hill at Prague. 
As the tradition is, she was married to a king and be- 
trayed him, marrying his enemy, whom she afterwards 
deserted. She was finally caught and walled up in the 

1 The Science of Fairy Tales, p. 253. 

2 Ibid., p. 245. 3 Ibid., p. 221. 
8 



1 14 Foundation Rites. 

White Tower^ from which she can only be released if 
she shall find some one who will allow her to give him 
three stabs on the breast with a bayonet without utter- 
ing a word. 1 The infidelity of the woman is probably 
a later addition to the tale, invented to account for her 
incarceration in the wall after the original significance 
of the event was forgotten. 

Of curious interest in this connection are the tradi- 
tions associated with the founding of the cathedral of 
Our Lady of Guadaloupe in Mexico. In substance the 
story is as follows : In December, 1531, Juan Diego, an 
illiterate Indian convert of the Catholic Mission, was 
among the hills, on the outskirts of the Mexican city 
of Tlaltlolco, when he was accosted by a very beautiful 
woman who seemed to have descended from the sky. 
She addressed him in a friendly manner, and requested 
him to tell the Bishop of the diocese that it was the 
will of Heaven that he should build a temple on the 
spot to the Madonna. She then disappeared. Juan 
went to the Bishop and informed him of the vision 
which had appeared to him, and delivered the message 
entrusted to his care, but was told by the Bishop to go 
away and bring more convincing proofs of the miracu- 
lous apparition. Juan was confronted by the same 
vision on the same spot, on the next day. He duly re- 
ported it to the Bishop and was then told to visit the 
same place again on the following day, and ask the 
woman for some substantial evidence of her commission 
from Heaven. More beautiful than ever was the mar- 
velous vision that Juan beheld for the third time, the 
next day. He was then directed to a barren spot where 
1 The Science of Fairy Tales, p. 245. 



Shadows and Specters. 115 

nothing would grow, and told that he would there find 
roses in bloom. Going to the j^lace pointed out he was 
astonished to find, as had been predicted, bushes filled 
with blooming roses ; and moreover there was imprinted 
on the rough cape which he wore a likeness of the 
beautiful woman. The cape and some of the flowers 
were carried to the Bishop. The cape was hung in the 
Mission Church, and afterward in the temple erected 
on the spot where the meeting occurred, and the won- 
derful picture of the beautiful woman has been the 
object of much veneration for three and a half cen- 
turies since, and has been recently honored with a 
crown valued at $25,000. * The genuineness of the 
miracle has been certified to by the Sacred Congrega- 
tion of Rites at Rome, and received the approval of the 
Holy See. 2 It will be observed that the site upon 
which the cathedral was built, was the place of the 
appearance of the vision. Its mission was to secure 
the location and building of it in that particular place. 
After its construction was assured the vision appeared 
no more. These facts easily suggest the query, whether 
this is not the survival of some tradition connected 
with early foundation rites ? 

Not less applicable is the same question to the story 
told in one of the letters of the Younger Pliny, of the 
haunted house of Athens. In the dead of night a noise 
like the clashing of chains was frequently heard, at first 
at a distance, and as it approached nearer by degrees, a 
specter appeared in the form of an old man with long 

1 Report of Archbishop Corrigan in St. Patrick's Cathedral 
of his visit to the shrine as given in the New York Tribune. 

2 Ibid. 



n6 Foundation Rites. 

beard and disheveled hair, rattling the chains on his 
feet and hands. The house was declared uninhabitable 
and abandoned to the ghostly occupant. Tempted by 
the low price for which it was offered for sale, it was 
purchased by the philosopher Athenodorus, who took 
up his residence in the house and made preparations 
for the reception of its spiritual visitor. When the 
specter appeared in the manner in which it had been 
described to the philosopher, and stood before him, 
beckoning with his finger, Athenodorus followed, light 
in hand, to a certain part of the house, when the specter 
suddenly vanished. Having marked the place where 
the spirit left him, he notified the magistrate, and 
advised that the spot be dug up. It was accordingly 
done and the skeleton of a man in chains was there 
found. The bones were collected and buried with 
proper ceremonies, and the house was haunted no more. 1 

1 Among my Books, James Russell Lowell, article, Witch- 
craft, with reference to Melmoth's translation of Pliny's 
Letters, vii. 27. 



Relics. 117 



CHAPTER IX. 

RELICS. 

The potency of the relics from which the hell-broth * 
was brewed in the witches' caldron was an accepted 
fact in Shakespeare's time. How much, or how little, 
the great poet really believed himself of the virtues at- 
tributed to them, is unknown, and matters little. It 
is certain, however, that if he had ventured to give ex- 
pression to views upon the subject which were hostile 
to the well known beliefs of the reigning powers, his 
career would have been ended ingloriously, and the 
world would never have been enriched by the wonder- 
ful productions of his pen. Shortly before Macbeth 
was written the famous statute of King James had 
made the penalty death for using any part of a dead 
body for conjuring purposes. 2 A few years earlier it 
had been solemnly testified to in high court, that from 
" the joints of fingers and toes cutted off from dead 
corpses," 3 the storm which had been planned in North 
Berwick Kirk, which so nearly wrecked the king on his 
bridal trip, had been produced. 

The marvelous power of the relics of dead martyrs 
had been proclaimed by the wisest of the Fathers and 

1 Macbeth, iv., i. 

2 Encyclopedia Britannica, article, Witchcraft ; Principles 
of Sociology vol. i., p. 244. 

3 Among my Books, James Russell Lowell, p. 113. 



n8 Foundation Rites. 

the Councils of the Church. St. Augustine had cata- 
logued the miracles wrought in his own diocese by the 
body of St. Stephen and there were no less than five 
cases of restoration of life to the dead. 1 " The minute 
particles of these relics," says Gibbon, i ' a drop of blood, 
or the scrapings of a bone, were acknowledged, in 
almost every province of the Roman world, to possess 
a divine and miraculous virtue." 2 No sanctuary was 
complete without its sacred relics beneath or upon its 
altar. The Council of Trullan in the seventh century 
decreed the demolition of all altars without relics. 3 
The Council of Mce in the eighth century forbade the 
consecration of any church without them. 4 The hand- 
kerchief or sponge which was saturated . 

" With gore distilled from martyr's vein," 

was a holy safeguard as an amulet to protect the person 
or the home. Borne in battle, such relics blunted the 
edge of the sword and averted death ; affixed to towers 
they thwarted the lightning. 5 

As the fragments of the body of Osiris were made 
the foundations of temples, so the great mosques of 
Cairo are the shrines of the Saints of Islam. 6 The body 
of the crucified Saint is the rock upon which St. 
Peter's is founded, at Rome. 7 The final resting-place of 

1 Lecky's Rationalism in Europe, vol i., p. 178 ; Gibbon's 
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. iii., p. 271, note. 

2 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. iii., p. 270. 

3 Chambers's Encyclopedia, article, Relics. 

4 Lecky's Rationalism in Europe, vol. i., p. 121. 

5 Credulities Past and Present, William Jones, p. 187. 

6 Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 416. 
'Ibid., p. 421. 



n mm— 



Relics. 119 

St. Mark was in the great cathedral which bears his 
name, and, as it is represented in a famous picture, 
his soul flitted over the sea with its body, and St. 
Mark, St. George and St. Nicholas became the guar- 
dian Saints of the city of Lagoons. 1 

The resting-place of Saints Gervasius and Protasius 
was revealed in a vision to Saint Ambrose when he 
wished for holy relics to found and consecrate his new 
church at Milan, 2 while under the high altar of St. 
Sabina at Rome rest the bodies of five Saints taken from 
under the ancient altar of Pope Eugenius II., accord- 
ing to the inscription of the leaden chest which encloses 
them. 3 Other relics at St. Sabina, as scheduled by a 
historian, are : an arm of St. Sabina ; part of the cane 
with which Christ was beaten and derided ; a rib of 
one of the holy innocents ; bones of the forty martyrs ; 
bones of the eleven thousand virgins ; part of the 
tunic of St. Dominic ; a cross of silver, in the middle 
of which is another cross containing a relic of the 
true cross of the Saviour, in the right arm of this 
cross are relics of St. Thomas, and St. Lawrence ; in 
the left arm, of St. Bartholomew, and St. Mary Mag- 
dalen ; in the top, of the apostles, St. Peter and St. 
James ; in the bottom, of St. Alexander, St. Sabina, 
St. Seraphia, St. Agnes, St. Hypolitus, and others ; 
there are other relics of St. Peter, Paul, Matthew, 
Stephen, Philip, James, Cosmas, Damanus, Apollina- 
rius, Catharine, Cecilia ; olives from Mount Olivet ; 
earth from the holy sepulcher ; part of the stone on 

1 Evolution of God, p. 423. 2 Ibid., p. 420. 

3 All Religions and Religious Ceremonies, Thomas Williams, 
1823, p. 26, 



120 Foundation Rites. 

which the Saviour slept and of the sepulcher of the 
Virgin. 1 

What is the origin of the belief in the power of 
relics ? whence did the custom of using them in 
churches originate ? Is there any connection between 
such use of them and the sacrificial rites of founda- 
tions ? 

In discussing the latter question Mr. Speth 2 has 
called attention to the fact that the sacrifice is made 
to secure the safety of the edifice, and that the victim 
is not necessarily sacred or holy, and is sometimes a 
captive or slave, while the relic owes its value to the 
holiness of the departed, and is supposed to contribute 
to the sanctity rather than the stability of the struc- 
ture. It has already been noticed that the captive was 
regarded as the choicest portion of the spoils of victory, 
and as such would be a most acceptable offering to 
the gods. The slave was the personal substitute of the 
master, and the next thing to the master himself would 
be an offering of his slave. It must be noticed that in 
many of the traditions recorded the victims of the 
sacrifice were innocent children supposed to be spe- 
cially acceptable. It was a pure virgin which the oracle 
demanded at " rocky Ithome." It was a brother Saint 
that Saint Columba immured in the wall of his monas- 
tery. In the legend of Vortigern the blood of a son 
"born of a mother without a father" must sprinkle 
the foundation. Such a one would be a holy person. 
It was a queen of the royal household who was drowned 
in the Burmese reservoir. True, in later times, a stag 

1 All Religions and Religious Ceremonies, p. 27. 

2 Builders' Rites, p. 50. 



itffti 



Relics. 121 

was substituted for the virgin at Laodicea. However, 
much evidence seems to indicate that primarily the 
sanctity of the victim was an element of its power. 
On the other hand, it may be well questioned, if belief 
in the power of the relics to sanctify the structure is 
not everywhere accompanied with belief in their guard- 
ianship and protection. Though the connection is 
not apparent at first between them, "Nevertheless," 
says Mr. Speth, (i it would appear as if the bones of 
the sacrifice had in some instances acquired the virtue 
of and been regarded as relics ; as if the one had 
gradually developed into the other. The transition is 
natural enough." 1 Referring to some bones found in 
connection with some repairs being made to the roof 
of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, in a correspondence 
between Mr. William Simpson and Sir John Cowell, 
the latter writes : " The bones were those of dogs, 
sheep and foxes, as far as I can recollect, and were 
upon what may be considered capstones, for they were 
placed in the stone sockets of the spindles which carried 
the vanes along the top of the chapel, and were, I 
suspect, but the act of an ignorant or depraved set, 
who may very possibly have had in their minds the 
ancient customs, to which you allude, though in a 
very distorted form." 3 Commenting on this letter, 
Mr. Speth observes : " The distortion here referred 
to is very natural, and quite in the usual course. 
Originally there was a human sacrifice, then an animal 
one, later, with softened manners, the bones of animals 
were supposed to be sufficient, and last of all these 
bones continued to be used without any distinct idea 
1 Builders' Rites, p. 50. 2 Ibid., p. 29. 



122 Foundation Rites. 

of the reason, except that it had always been the 
custom." 1 And again, he says : "Had this discovery 
taken place at a time when relics were still in favor 
with the worshipers, would it not have been natural for 
them to assume, having forgotten their true import, 
that they were relics of departed saints ? " 2 Another 
case is referred to showing an apparent connection be- 
tween church relics and foundation sacrifices. In a 
note from Mr. Simpson to Mr. Speth, he quotes from 
Martene, given by Neale and Webb in the appendix 
to Durandus, p. 199, the following : "In the church 
of St. Benedict, consecrated by Pope Alexander II., 
there were relics in the chapel apse of St. John, in the 
bases of the piers, in the four angles of the bell tower, 
in the cross of the western gable, in the cross of the 
tower." The writer is speaking of the subject of 
relics in the altar, and they are given in the quotation 
above as church relics, and Mr. Simpson asks : "As 
these relics were not in altars, but exactly where foun- 
dation and completion sacrifices were placed, were the 
relics not a continuation or substitute ? " 3 

According to Gibbon, the sophists described the ruin 
of the pagan religion as accompanied by the conversion 
of the temples into sepulchers in which the holy places 
which had been adorned by the statues of the gods 
were polluted by the relics of Christian martyrs, and 
the mutilated remains of infamous malefactors conse- 
crated as the objects of veneration of the people. 4 

1 Builders Rites, p. 29. 2 Ibid., p. 51. 

3 Ibid., p. 51. 

4 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. iii., pp. 266, 
267. 



Relics. 123 

After the conversion of Constantine, the emperors 
and consuls and generals visited the tombs of the apos- 
tles and their "venerable bones were deposited under 
the altars of Christ/' 1 The new capital of the Eastern 
world was enriched by the spoils of dependent provinces. 
After three hundred years the bodies of St. Andrew, 
St. Luke and St. Timothy were transported to the 
Church of the Apostles on the banks of the Bospho- 
rus, and St. Andrew was adopted as the spiritual 
founder of the new city of Constantine. 2 

Under the altars were the souls of the martyrs, in 
the vision of the Apocalypse. 3 While theologians 
debated whether the souls of dead Saints found tempo- 
rary resting-place under the altars or in the bosom of 
Abraham/ numerous miracles testified that their life- 
less bodies were in some way permeated with the su- 
pernatural powers which the living Saints had mani- 
fested. Fortunate indeed were the " places which had 
been consecrated by their birth, their residence, their 
death, their burial, or the possession of their relics." 5 
If the souls did not actually visit the resting-place of 
their bodies, " the blessed spirits might wander solici- 
tous of the affairs of the world." 6 The sanctity of their 
souls might leave behind " a tincture and sacred faculty 
on their bodies." 7 

1 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. iii., p. 267. 

2 Ibid., vol. iii., p. 268, note. 

8 Revelation vi. 9. Eevised Version. 

4 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. iii., p. 272, 
note. 5 Ibid., vol. iii., p. 272. 

6 Religio Medici, Sir Thomas Browne, p. 71. 

7 Ibid., p. 57. 



124 Foundation Rites. 

In the vision of the souls under the altars, do we 
not catch a glimpse of the primitive thougnt of the 
ancient Egyptian ? The Ka, the second self, 1 the 
double, 2 the life, 3 one of the forms of the soul, 4 found 
its home in the tomb with the mummied remains, 5 to 
which it had at all times free access. The tomb was 
" the everlasting house " of the Ka only so long as the 
mummy of the body remained in it. 6 Suitable provi- 
sions were made at the tomb for the welfare of the Ka. 
So, acceptable offerings at the temple secured the 
favorable consideration of the Saints. 7 Sealed up in 
the leaden casket were the bodies of the Saints under 
the high altar of St. Sabina, 8 and walled up was the pas- 
sage-way leading to the innermost recess of the Mas- 
taba containing the sarcophagus in which was sealed 
up the mummied dead. 9 

If it be true, as Mr. Trumbull contends, that the 
earliest form of the primitive temple was but a rude 
doorway whose sacred threshold was its altar, 10 and that 
the corner-stone was oftentimes literally the threshold 
of the building where the sacrificial rites took place, 11 

1 Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, A. Wiedemann, p. 240. 

2 Ancient Egypt and Assyria, G. Maspero, English trans- 
lation, p. 149. 

8 Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers, pp. 123, 131, 232, 263. 
4 Tlie Threshold Covenant, p. 106 ; Religion and Conscience 
in Ancient Egypt, W. M. Flinders Petrie, p. 32. 

6 Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers, p. 124 ; Religion and 
Conscience, p. 32. 6 The Mummy, Wallace Budge, p. 328. 

7 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. iii., p. 273. 

8 All Religions and Religious Ceremonies, p. 27. 

9 Tlie Mummy, p. 324. 

i° The Threshold Covenant, pp. 102, 126. n Ibid., pp. 46, 55. 



Relics. 125 

an obvious relationship is suggested between the foun- 
dation deposits and the relics beneath the altar. 

Again, the conclusions which have been arrived at 
by exhaustive and independent investigations by the 
distinguished author of Synthetic Philosophy and the 
eminent antiquarian, Mr. William Simpson, are, that 
the temple is an outgrowth of the tomb, and the primi- 
tive altars but shrines of dead ancestors, or dead heroes. 1 
Are not, then, the relics of these ancestral altars, in 
some sense, the very foundations upon which the tem- 
ples have been reared ? 

It was a belief of the Delphians that the remains of 
Bacchus were deposited by the side of the famous 
oracle. 2 Eelics of a Buddha were indispensable for the 
foundation of any dagobah. 3 Sanctuaries of the Celts 
were upon mounds, which were either barrows of the 
dead, or expressly made for temples, and the name of 
the god worshiped, in both Irish and Welsh, signified 
the " head or chief " of the mound. 4 Mont St. Mi- 
chel, near Carnac, in Brittany, is a chambered barrow 
surmounted by a little chapel. From the relics found 
in the tomb it is conjectured some person of impor- 
tance must have been buried there. 5 On little hillocks 
in the middle of a plain, which mark the graves of 
heroes, altars have been found in Denmark, Norway 
and Sweden 6 around which were held religious cere- 
monies. 

1 Principles of Sociology, vol. i., chap, xix ; Appletons' 
Pop. Science Monthly, vol. xlii., p. 489 ; Evolution of the Idea 
of God, p. 411. 

2 Plutarch's Isis and Osiris, Bohn Edition, p. 30, note. 

3 Ibid. 4 Science of Fairy Tales, p. 231, note. 6 Ibid. 
6 Mallet's Northern Antiquities, pp. 107, 158. 



126 Foundation Rites. 

As Mr. Spencer has observed, every mausoleum of a 
great man " is visited with feelings akin to the relig- 
ious," and becomes " an incipient place of worship." 1 
Moreover, as the same author has pointed out, it is a 
custom among many savage tribes, to bury a dead per- 
son in his own house, which is afterwards abandoned 
and acquires the attributes of a temple. 2 Throughout 
Central America the bones of a chieftain were deposited 
in the temple. 3 The bones of the Oaribs were cleaned, 
bleached, painted, wrapped in balsams and suspended 
in wicker baskets from the door of the dwelling. 4 As 
Moses took along with him in his wanderings the bones 
of Joseph, a widow of the Tankalis carries the bones of 
her dead husband wherever she goes, for a period of 
years. 5 Dr. Peters has known people to bury their 
dead in their cellars at Baghdad. They were buried 
beneath their houses in Nippur, and graves were built 
against the walls of the houses of Brousa. 6 The 
remains of Areas were transported from Msenalus to 
Mantinsea and placed by the altar in the temple of 
Hera, by command of the Oracle of Delphi : 

" Go there I bid you, and with kindly mind 
Remove his body to the pleasant city, 
Where three and four and even five roads meet, 
There build a shrine and sacrifice to Areas." 7 

It is related of the Icelandic hero, Kvolld-Ulf, that, 
having fallen dangerously ill on the voyage, he directed 



1 Principles of Sociology, vol. i., p. 234. 

2 Ibid., vol. i., pp. 251, 252. 

3 Myths of the New World, p. 296. 

4 Ibid., p. 297. 5 Ibid., p. 296. 6 Nippur, vol. ii., p. 113. 
7 Pausanias' Description of Greece, viii., ix. 






Relics. 127 

that when death came, his body should be placed in a 
coffin, and thrown into the sea, and that, wherever his 
remains were found, there his son should found his 
future home. 1 

According to the Roman poet, the head of a spirited 
horse was buried in the sacred spot of the holy grove, 
where the Sidonian Dido reared the great temple to 
Juno at Carthage. 2 By this it was ensured that " the 
nation would be glorious in war, and gain their sub- 
stance easily through many an age." 3 

Primitive belief in the protective power of sacred 
relics is illustrated by a tale of a merchant of Gron- 
ingen, who, on one of his voyages abroad, had obtained 
by bribery an arm of St. John the Baptist, which, on 
his return, he had encased in a pillar of a new house, 
which he was erecting. So implicitly he relied upon 
it for safety that in case of a conflagration he refused 
to take any other measures to preserve the house, say- 
ing that it was under good guardianship. The house 
escaped destruction, but so much curiosity was excited 
by the circumstance that he was compelled to reveal the 
cause of his confidence, when the relic was carried off 
and deposited in a church, where it continued to work 
miracles, although the merchant, who with its posses- 
sion had been so prosperous, was reduced to poverty. 4 

The historian records that, among the Franciscans, 
in the fourteenth century, fragments of bodies and 
bones were treasured as relics, and set before altars in 
their houses and carried on the person as amulets. 5 

1 Northern Antiquities, p. 287. 2 Virgil's JEneid, L, 1. 441. 
8 Ibid., Lonsdale and Lee's translation, book i., line 445. 
4 Lea's Inquisition, vol. i., p. 48. 5 Ibid., vol. iii., p. 80. 



128 Foundation Rites. 

Among the natives of New Guinea, the preservation 
of the skulls, both of their friends and their enemies, 
is of great importance. The good qualities of those to 
whom they belonged is supposed to be imparted to the 
possessor of their skulls. The Field Columbian 
Museum is in possession of a collection of sixteen 
skulls, eight of men, seven of women, and one of a 
child, all of which were the property of a native chief, 
who adorned his house with them. They were care- 
fully preserved so that no part should be lost. The 
teeth were tied in, and in some cases where they were 
lost, new ones were substituted. The jaws were tied 
to the skulls by cords. 1 The dried bodies of dead an- 
cestors were the household gods which guarded the 
Marian islanders, and out of their skulls they gave 
oracles. 2 The soul of a dead Carib dwelt again in his 
bones and was ready to answer questions, or assist in 
confounding an enemy. The Guinea negroes com- 
municated with their forefathers through the ancestral 
bones in the sacred chest preserved in their little huts. 3 
The large lodging house of the Mundrucus, which is 
also a barrack and fortress, is surrounded and guarded 
by the dried heads of their enemies. 4 By drinking the 
powder made of the residuum of the stewed remains of 
the dead, the Tarianas and Tucanos believe the virtues 
of the deceased are transmitted to them/ Some of the 
large houses of the Uacarras have more than a hundred 
graves. 8 

1 Popular Science Monthly, vol. liv., p. 571. 

2 Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 151. 3 Ibid. 

4 Travels on the Amazon, Alfred Russell Wallace, p. 359. 
c Ibid., p. 346. 6 Ibid. 



Relics. 129 

Ancient records indicate that great importance was 
attached to the preservation of the heads of enemies 
which were arranged in heaps at the gates, or placed 
upon the walls. Notable men were flayed and their 
skins stretched upon the city walls. Hulai, the gov- 
ernor, was flayed and his skin stretched upon the walls 
of Damdamusa, 1 and a like fate befell Bubu in the city 
of Arbela, 2 in the reign of Assur-nasir-pal, according 
to records from one of the Nimroud temples. The 
heads of 150 of the soldiers of Amika were cut off and 
raised to the heights of his palace, 3 and at Pitura, " a 
strong town of Dirrai," where "two forts faced each 
other/' and a mighty castle " stood up like the summit 
of a mountain," a trophy of living captives and the 
heads of 800 slain soldiers was built about the great 
gate. 4 Heaps of heads at the gates of the royal city, 
Amidi (Kar-Amid) were piled. 5 The seventy heads of 
Aliab's sons by command of Jehu were arranged " in 
two heaps at the entering in of the gate." 6 Over 
against the cities of Nmni, 7 Burmarahna, 8 and Arzascu, 9 
Shalmaneser built up pyramids of the heads of the 
people. 

The remains of fair Eosamund Clifford are identified 
in English history and tradition with Godstow nunnery. 
It is said when Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, came to the 
Abbey, and entered the church to pray, he found the 

1 Records of the Past, vol. iii., p. 49. 

2 Ibid., vol. iii., p. 45. 8 Ibid., vol. iii., p. 57. 
4 Ibid., vol. iii., p. 61. 5 Ibid., vol. iii., p. 76. 

6 II. Kings x. 8. 

7 Records of the Past, vol. iii., p. 85. 

8 Ibid., vol. iii., p. 87. 9 Ibid., vol. iii., p. 95, 

9 



130 Foundation Rites. 

tomb in the middle of the choir "covered with a pall 
of silke, and set about with lights of wax." At the 
dissolution of the nunnery the bones of Eosamund were 
found " closid in lede, and withyn that bones were 
closyd yn lether," and a very " swete smell came owt " 
of the tomb. When Hearne wrote in 1718, according 
to Bishop Percy, the foundations were still seen at 
Woodstock which had been Rosamund's labyrinth. 1 

Equally potent for evil as for good were the bones 
of the dead. The Moor, who boasted a " thousand 
dreadful things," and only regretted he could not do 
a thousand more, exclaims : 

" Few come within the compass of my curse, 
Wherein I did not some notorious ill, 
As kill a man, or else devise his death, — 

Oft have I digged up dead men from their graves, 
And set them upright at their dear friends' doors, 
Even when their sorrows almost were forgot." 2 

It was thought dangerous, in early times in Europe, 
to leave corpses unguarded lest witches should take 
from them the choice ingredients for their charms. 
With powder ground from the bones of the dead, the 
ancient Peruvian sorcerer stupefied all in the house. 3 
In some parts of Europe bones from the churchyard 
charmed against disease. A tooth from a corpse worn 
round the neck cured the toothache. 4 

Hair and nail clippings became the property of 

1 Reliques of English Poetry, Thomas Percy, vol. ii., p. 121. 

2 Titus Andronicus, v. i. 

3 Principles of Sociology, vol. i., p. 244. 

4 Berdoe's History of Medicine, p. 414. 



Relics. 131 

Ahriman, according to Persian belief, and unless pro- 
tected became the weapons of demons. 1 Pliny taught 
that the parings of the toe-nails and finger-nails of a 
sick person, if mixed with wax and stuck upon the 
door of another person before sunrise, transmitted the 
disease. 2 

The hair was regarded as an important part of the 
body, as the special seat of life and strength. It was 
cut from the head of the corpse sometimes to facilitate 
the escape of the soul from the body. 3 The possession 
of hair from a man's head or a shaving from his nails 
was a potent means of getting and retaining control 
over him. For this reason the Arab cut and put in his 
quiver the hair of a captive before releasing him, and 
Mohammed's hair was preserved and worn on the per- 
son of his followers. One such hair is a famous relic 
in the Mosque of the Companion at Cairawan. 4 Arab 
women laid their hair on the tomb of the dead. Maidens 
and young men of Syria deposited their hair in caskets 
of gold and silver and placed them in the temples. 5 
Hair from the eyebrows was an important sacrifice 
among the Incas. 6 " The hair-offering and the offer- 
ing of one's own blood," says Robertson Smith, " are 
precisely similar in meaning in their origin." It 
played an important part in paganism and even " en- 
tered into Christian ritual in the tonsure of priests and 
nuns." 7 According to Rabbinical teaching, it was im- 
pious to leave the cut nails exposed to the public where 

1 History of Medicine, p. 143. 2 Ibid., p. 407. 

3 Religion of the Semites, p. 306, note. 

4 Ibid., p. 307, note. 5 Ibid., p. 307. 
6 Ibid., p. 313, note. » ibid., p. 316. 



132 Foundation Rites. 

they might be made use of by evil-disposed persons. 1 
The ancient Persian Sacred Books prescribed religious 
ceremonies to be used in burying them, which must be 
done at a certain depth, so many paces from water, and 
from fire, with a furrow drawn around the sacred spot 
to imprison the nasu or corpse-fiend. 2 If the clippings 
of hair and nails worked injury in the hands of malev- 
olent ones, they were equally powerful in promoting 
the welfare and security of the individual if retained 
in his control. They controlled the streams, protected 
from drouth, 3 propitiated the gods. Being part of the 
body, and containing part of the life and differentiated 
soul, an injury to them was at the risk of the soul. 
Barbers of the Maldives worked at the gates of the 
temples. The Tahitians buried the clippings at the 
temples. 4 In Danzig they were buried under the 
threshold. 5 Among the Peruvians the nail-parings and 
the hairs that were shorn or torn out with the comb 
were placed in niches in the walls. 6 It is said the same 
custom still prevails in Chile. T They are stuffed in the 
cracks of the walls or boards by the Turks. 8 

The reason assigned by G-arcilasso de la Vega for the 
preservation of hair and nail-clippings in the walls by 
the Indians of Peru was that they might have these 
parts of the body in some accessible place in the con- 
fusion of the resurrection. 9 That his thought was of 

1 Credulities Past and Present, W. Jones, p. 533. 

2 Faiths of the World, St. Giles Lectures, p. 130 ; The 
Golden Bough, vol. i. , p. 202. 

3 The Golden Bough, vol. i., p. 200. 4 Ibid. 

6 Ibid., vol. i,, p. 202. 6 Ibid., vol. i., p. 203. 

7 Ibid., vol. i„ p. 204. 8 Ibid. » Ibid., vol. i., p. 204, note. 



Relics. 133 

later origin and not the primitive significance of the cus- 
tom seems a warrantable conclusion from the universality 
among early races of belief of the danger of neglecting 
to keep these relics from their enemies, and of security 
and protection that their possession ensured. A similar 
belief leads negroes of the Calabar district to cut off 
the head of a dead chief before burying the body. The 
head is concealed lest some rival town gain possession 
of the spirit and favor of the chief. By secretly hold- 
ing it in their own possession his favorable influence is 
assured. 1 In like manner the spirit of a man is secured 
for the service of a village which has possession of his 
eyeball, and the graves of white men are rifled to 
secure them. 2 In precisely the same manner that the 
hair and nails were preserved by the Peruvians in a 
farmhouse of Tremarrow in Cornwall was found a 
niche in which was preserved a human skull. 3 When- 
ever it has been taken down and buried strange dis- 
turbances have been reported to ensue, thereby demon- 
strating that the relic was the guardian spirit of the 
household. 

It is said that empty coffins have been found built 
into the walls in Germany, 4 and the coffin of a priest 
was built into the wall of Snailwell Church, Cambridge- 
shire. 5 These are supposed to have been substituted for 
the human remains which they would ordinarily have 
contained. Pliny is quoted as authority for the use of 
a nail drawn out of a sepulcher to expel phantoms from 

1 Travels in West Africa, Mary H. Kingsley, p. 450. 

2 Ibid., p. 449. a Builders' Rites, p. 28. 

4 Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 105; Teutonic Mythology, 
P. U43. 6 Builders' Rites, p. 7. 



134 Foundation Rites. 

a bedchamber, which should be driven into the thresh- 
old of the door. 

Cups for holding libations of blood have often been 
found in connection with monuments of the dead, and 
cup-hollows are found in menhirs and dolmens. 1 Two 
basins were built into the wall at Tucke-brande. 2 'Cal- 
drons have been found walled into the sides of churches. 
The story told of the church of Notre Dame at Bruges 
to account for the caldron reported to be in the wall, 
is, that the supply of meat for the workmen running 
short for the builders, the wife of the master-mason 
took the remaining bones and with vegetables made a 
soup which she carried to her husband, who was so 
angered that he built the caldron containing the bones 
into the wall. 3 " These caldrons walled into the sides 
of churches/' says Baring-Gould, (i are almost certainly 
the old sacrificial caldrons of the Teutons and Norse. 
When heathenism was abandoned, the instrument of 
the old pagan rites was planted in the church wall in 
token of the abolition of heathenism." 4 It seems more 
probable, however, that these caldrons contained the 
sacrificial victims immured to secure the stability of 
the walls. 6 

Relics of the dead drove away malignant diseases and 
made productive fields. The tomb of Hesiod was, ac- 
cording to Pausanias, at Naupactus, till, in time of 

1 Finger-Ring Lore, W. Jones, p. 154. 

2 Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 109. 

3 On Foundations, Murray's Magazine, March, 1887. 
* Ibid. 

5 On Foundations, Murray's Magazine, March, 1887, p. 373, 
note. 



Relics. 135 

pestilence which destroyed men and cattle, the people 
of Orchomenus sent messengers to Delphi, when the 
Pythian priestess bade them bring the bones of Hesiod 
to Orchomenus, which being complied with the pesti- 
lence disappeared. 1 Pausanias also relates another tra- 
dition of Orchomenus, to the effect that a certain specter 
which haunted a certain stone rendered their lands un- 
productive, when the oracle at Delphi instructed them 
to j>rocure the remains of Action and bury them there, 
which they did, offering them annually thereafter funeral 
rites, which gave them immunity from the blighting 
ghost. 2 

In many parts of the earth offerings were made to 
ancestral spirits to secure favorable harvests. The 
native of Xew Guinea calls the names of the family 
dead in the center of his plantation and makes offerings 
to them before beginning his planting. 3 The propitia- 
tion of ghosts was as essential to success in primitive 
agriculture as fertilization in modern times. The Xew 
Caledonian fertilized his yam plots by burying images 
of them. 4 A bit of flesh from the sacrificial victim, 
annually distributed to each family of the Khonds of 
Bengal, and buried in his favorite field, made certain 
the harvest. 5 Sometimes the head and bones were 
buried in the fields and at others they were burnt and 
the ashes sprinkled upon them. e A West African queen 

1 Pausanias, Bohn Translation, ix. , xxxviii. 

2 Ibid., ix., xxviii. 

3 Popular Science Monthly, vol. xlii., p. 491. 

4 Myth, Ritual and Religion, Andrew Lang, vol. i., p. 97. 

5 TJie Golden Bough, toI. i., p. 385. 

6 Ibid., p. 389. 



136 Foundation Rites. 

annually sacrificed in a tilled field a man and woman to 
secure good crops. 1 These immolations have been at- 
tributed by Mr. Grant Allen to the " definite desire to 
manufacture artificially an indwelling spirit " for the 
growing crop, in a manner precisely similar to that by 
which an " artificial guardian god or spirit for a build- 
ing " is supplied. 2 

1 The Golden Bough, vol. i., p. 383. 

2 Popular Science Monthly, vol. xlii., pp. 659, 660. 



Writings. 137 



CHAPTER X. 

WRITINGS. 

If the argument of Juliet with herself, in the garden 
of the Capulets, to prove the immateriality of the hated 
name which her lover bore, had been entirely success- 
ful, she would not have implored him, in her passion, 
to "doff" his name and take some other. 1 With 
primitive races the name is an important part of one's 
personality. 2 " Let us go to the east coast of Green- 
land," says Dr. Brinton, "among people who a dozen 
years ago had never seen or heard of a white man. 
They believe that the person consists of three compo- 
nents, his living body, his thinking faculty and his 
name (atekata). This last enters the body when the 
child is named. It survives physical death, whereas 
the body and the thinking faculty die, the first cer- 
tainly, the latter sometimes." 3 

Among the ancient people of the Nile man was a 
composite being consisting of many parts, among which 
were the body, soul, intelligence, shadow, name and 
Ka. 4 To these Dr. Wiedemann adds the heart and 
husk, or mummy. 5 The cooperation of these several 
parts constituted the living man. At death these parts 

1 Romeo and Juliet, ii. 2. 

2 Principles of Sociology, vol. i., pp. 242, 245. 

3 Myths of the New World, p. 277. 

* Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers, p. 117, 5 Ibid. 



138 Foundation Rites. 

were separated, to be reunited forever after long pro- 
bation. " The name, the shadow, and the heart awaited 
the arrival of the soul when its pilgrimage should be 
accomplished." 1 No being could exist without a name. 
It was essential to immortality. The preservation and 
protection of the name was, therefore, the supreme de- 
sire of the living. That it might be kept alive by the 
readers, it was inscribed on the walls of temples and 
monuments. 2 That it might survive neglect and de- 
struction by the living, it was buried and concealed be- 
neath the foundations. 3 

The Hellenium was the most spacious of the temples 
of Naukratis. 4 Its vast enclosure wall, fifty feet thick 
and forty feet high, built six hundred and fifty years 
before the Christian Era, was repaired by Ptolemy Phila- 
delphus, who with a great building and gateway filled 
up a breach in it. Under the four corners, last and 
lowest of the foundation deposits, Mr. Petrie found 
" a little plaque of oval lapis lazuli in -the form of a 
royal cartouche, engraved with the names and titles of 
Ptolemy Philadelphus." 

On the lower stage of the great temple of Sin, the 
male moon-god, which King Urukh built in the ancient 
city of Ur, modern research has discovered the name of 
the King inscribed. 5 Sennacherib restored the fallen 
Kurili palace of his fathers whose foundations had been 
laid bare and their records lost. The " written rec- 

1 Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers, p. 118, 131. 

2 Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, A. Wiedemann, p. 294. 

3 Herodotus, ii. 178. 

4 Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers, p. 33. 
6 Booh of the Dead, C. H. S. Davis, p. 5. 



Writings. 139 

ords " of his name were placed within the new founda- 
tions. 1 " Let my name "be placed in your dwelling, let 
my statue be erected to perpetuate my name that it 
may not perish," is the inscription of Nes-Hor. 2 " On 
tablets of gold, silver, copper, lead, tin, marble and 
alabaster, I wrote the glory of my name, and I put 
them into the foundations." So reads the tablets from 
the stone chest dug from the foundation walls at 
Khorsabad, in 1853, by Victor place, the tablets of the 
great Sargon, the builder of Dur-Sarginu. 3 Two in- 
scribed terra-cotta cylinders of Assur-banipal were found 
embedded in the walls of his palace, and four similar 
cylinders in the walls of that of Sennacherib. 4 

It must be remembered that at the earliest period to 
which our present knowledge of the people of ancient 
Babylonia and Egypt extends, they were far advanced 
in civilization. The substitution of the name as a per- 
sonal offering is a long distance from the immured liv- 
ing sacrifice, and continuity of thought is not always ap- 
parent in the transitions and development of religious 
ideas. Closely allied with the name itself are the 
writings which record the personalities of its owner. 
The primitive victim provided a guardian spirit for the 
new edifice thereby promoting its safety and permanence. 
What relationship, if any, exists between the earlier 
thought and the dominant idea connected with the 
later deposits of inscribed tablets when the structure 
itself becomes the conservator of one of the component 
and essential parts of the living being ? 

1 Records of the Past, vol. i. , p. 55. 

2 Ibid. , vol. vi., pp. 82, 83. 3 Ibid., vol. xi., pp. 33, 39. 
4 Asliur and the Land of Nimrod, Hormuzd Rassam, p 222. 



140 Foundation Rites. 

Knowledge or possession of the name of the living 
or dead gave, to a certain extent, power over him. 1 
" To know the true name of any being was to be master 
of the owner and of his powers." 2 " Unless thou tell my 
name, thou shalt not pass," says the Keeper of the Gate 
in the Hall of the Two Truths. 3 " I shall not let thee 
enter through me," says the left panel, "unless thou tell 
me my name." 4 Tell me my name," says the Ship in the 
Netherworld, " Tell us our name," say the winds, when 
thou movest by them." " Tell me my name," says the 
Eiver, " when thou sailest on it," " Tell me my name," 
says the solid earth, " when thou goest across it." 6 " I 
know thee, I know thy name, I know the name of the god 
who keeps thee," says the pilgrim, as he approaches 
each of the gates of the field of Aarru in the dwelling 
of Osiris, and, " Go through, thou art pure," sever- 
ally respond each of the gates. 6 "The names of the 
great gods side by side he wrote and to their power he 
trusted," says the inscription of Esarhaddon of Ab- 
dimilkutti, the King of Sidon. 7 

The name is not always to be mentioned, or to be 
used lightly. 8 The savage withholds his name from 
the possession of him whom he fears. Names of the 
dead are sometimes tabooed to the living. 9 Eeligious 
scruples forbade Herodotus to mention the name of 

1 Principles of Sociology, pp. 245, 246. 

2 Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, Wiedemann, p. 294. 

3 Book of the Dead, chap. cxxv. 61. 

4 Ibid., chap. cxxv. 54. 

6 Ibid., chap. xcix. 6 Ibid., chap. cxiv. 

7 Records of the Past, vol. iii., p, 112. 

8 Principles of Sociology, vol. i., p. 273. 

9 Ibid., j). 271. 



Writings. 141 

Osiris. 1 "And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I 
come unto the children of Israel, and shall say onto 
them, The God of your fathers hath sent me to you ; 
and they shall say to me, what is his name ? what shall 
I say unto them ? And God said unto Moses, . . . 
Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM 
hath sent me unto you." 2 

When the name was inscribed upon something of 
itself sacred, its possession gave no power to work evil 
upon its owner. The sacredness of the object pro- 
tected the name. 3 Tablets inscribed with the name 
and deeds of the builder of a sacred edifice became 
sacred writings. Deposited securely in the walls, they 
were a perpetual reminder to the deity invoked of his 
obligations to protect the builder and his work. His 
divine guardianship was assured. The timin, a clay 
tablet or cylinder, was deposited in the foundation 
stone, or sometimes at the four corners. It was re- 
garded with peculiar reverence. It was intended to re- 
main forever. If found by a subsequent King, it must 
be reverently restored to its position. " I replaced the 
timin with a layer of large stones, I enclosed its place, 
and I made its deposit secure," says the inscription of 
Sennacherib, when the floods had undermined the foun- 
dations of the ancient Palace of Nineveh, and washed 
out its timin.* "When joyfully thou dost enter 
the holy buildings of Bit-Saggathu and Bit-zida . . . 
may thy lips proclaim their stability . . . like heaven 

1 Herodotus, Book ii., chap. 132. 

2 Exodus iii. 13, 14. 

3 Religion of Ancient Egypt, A. Wiedemann, p. 294. 

4 Records of the Past, vol. i., p. 31. 



142 Foundation Rites. 

may their foundations stand fast," is inscribed on the 
cylinders found at the corners of the temple of the 
Moon, at Ur. 1 Nebuchadnezzar repaired the founda- 
tions of the temple of the Sun, at Senkereh, and the 
cylinders found beneath its ruins invoke the great god 
to regard the pious works of his hands with pleasure ; 
" and may the gates, and doors, and halls, and apart- 
ments of the temple of Tara, which I have built with 
no sparing of expense, remain recorded in thy book ! " a 
" By the grace of Ormazd, I founded this fortress," 
says the inscription of Darius, " and I founded it 
strong, and beautiful, and complete. Ormazd may 
protect me, with all the gods, me, and also this for- 
tress." 8 

Inscribed deposits were the evidences of the cove- 
nant with the supernatural powers. They contained the 
letter of the bond between them and their servants, and 
their very presence insured protection and preservation. 
" He bestowed on me his protection . . . I am a King 
of his making," exclaims the " Son of the Sun," User- 
tesen I., " while extending the cord and laying the 
foundation" of the temple of the Sun, at Heliopolis, 
" I shall fill his altar upon earth, and I shall build, 
while I abide." In return, " There will be a remem- 
brance of my benefits in his house." 4 

In the famous document known as the " Bull In- 
scription of Khorsabad," which was the first trans- 
lated from the Cuneiform, 6 it is learned that specific 
functions were ascribed by the ancient Assyrians to the 

1 Records of the Past, vol. v., p. 147. 

2 Ibid., vol. vii., p. 72. 3 Ibid., vol. ix., p. 73. 
* Ibid., vol. xii., pp 33, 57. 5 Ibid., vol. xi., p. 15. 



Writings. 143 

several deities, in connection with the ceremonies of 
foundations. In the month of Sivan, the ground was 
measured and the bricks molded. Ab was the month 
of the god who lays the founding stone of towns and 
of houses. The gates set up at the extremities of the 
founding stone which was laid upon the bare rock, 
bore the name of the divinities, who gave their assist- 
ance. Assur lengthened the years of the Kings. 
"Ninip, who lays the foundation stone, fortifies its 
rampart." ' 

By some modern scholars divine origin is claimed for 
the roots of language. 2 Belief in the magical proper- 
ties of words, or in their connection with superior 
powers, or that they may be substituted for them has 
been persistent and widespread. When a chief of the 
Aztecs died, passports were presented to the coi^se, 
with one of which, he would be permitted " to cross 
the defile between the two mountains." With another 
he would avoid the great serpent. A third would put 
to flight the alligator. A fourth would guide him 
across the great deserts and the eight hills. 3 Among 
the Norsemen, songs would soften and enchant the 
arms of enemies, and Bunic characters destroy the 
effects of imprecations. " If I see a dead man hanging 
aloft on a tree, I engrave Bunic characters so wonder- 
ful, that the man immediately descends and converses 
with me," says one of the Eddaic poems. 4 Cotton and 
linen breastplates inked with symbolical characters 

1 Records of the Past, vol. xi., pp. 18-24. 

2 Principles of Sociology, vol. i., p. 837. 

3 Pre-Historic America, p. 300. 

4 Northern Antiquities, pp. 371, 372. 



144 Foundation Rites. 

were worn by the followers of Aguinaldo, in the Phil- 
ippines, to protect them from harm. 1 A Stockholm 
manuscript of the fourteenth century says the mystic 
" Anamzaptas " was an amulet against epilepsy. 
" Abracadabra, " worn on the neck, staunched blood 
and healed the toothache. 2 Serpents stopped their 
motion and lay as if dead on pronouncing certain 
words, according to a manuscript of the reign of 
William III. Tibetans say, reading certain prayers 
renders the body proof against bullet and sword. 3 Cot- 
ton Mather tested victims of witchcraft by holy sen- 
tences and the reading of pious books. 4 Luther 
prescribed the first chapter of St. John's gospel to 
protect from thunder and lightning. 5 Formulas writ- 
ten on consecrated paper, buried in the corner of a 
field, were once believed to destroy insects and secure 
favorable weather. 6 

Babylonian tablets affirmed the protection from 
binding holy sentences around the head, and on the 
"right and left of the threshold of the door." 7 
Tablets were hung up in their houses to conciliate the 
plague-god and drive away the disease. 8 Chinese 
characters on the doorposts of the houses protect from 

1 F. D. Millet in Harper's Weekly, March, 1899. 

2 Credulities Past and Present, p. 237. 

3 Ibid., pp. 240, 241. 

4 Wonders of the Invisible World, p. 114 ; Tlie Magnalia, 
vol. ii, p. 400. 

6 Warfare of Science with Theology, Andrew D. White, p. 
342. 

6 Ibid. 

7 Records of the Past, vol. iii., p., 142. 

8 Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 269, note. 



Writings. 145 

evil, and choice sentences from the Koran guard the 
gates and bridges and houses of the Mohammedans. 1 
The- phylacteries of the Jews removed ligaments and 
averted evil. 2 " Ye shall lay up these words in your 
heart, and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon 
your hand, and as frontlets between your eyes. And 
thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thine 
house, and upon thy gates." 3 The Book of the Dead 
was the most important of the religious writings of the 
Egyptians. Portions of it were written by Thoth. 4 
Thoth himself speaks through it revealing the will of 
the gods. 5 Its prayers and formulas secured victory 
for him who traversed the under world. 6 Written "on 
a band of undried papyrus with which all the limbs of 
of a man shall be wrapped, he shall not then be repelled 
from any gate in the Tuat. He shall be protected 
against the hands of the wicked ones eternally." 7 

In earlier buildings of Babylonia, inscriptions, invo- 
cations and deposits were at the threshold, and later 
they were under the four corners. When they were at 
the threshold they were not at the four corners and 



1 The Threshold Covenant, pp. 70, 71. 

2 The Magnolia, Cotton Mather, vol. i., p. 185 ; Origin and 
Groivth of the Healing Art , Edward Berdoe, p. 75 ; Chambers's 
Encyclopedia. 

3 Deuteronomy, chap, xi., 18, 20. 

4 Authors and their Public in Ancient Times, G. H. Putnam, 
p. 12 ; Book of the Dead, chap, lxxiv. 

5 Book of the Dead, C. H. S. Davis, p. 63. 

6 Religion of Ancient Egypt, A. Wiedemann, pp. 244, 247. 

7 Book of the Dead, chap, clxiii. 

8 The Threshold Covenant, p. 22. 

io 



146 Foundation Rites. 

monuments of ancient Babylonia, dating from the 
fifth millennium before Christ. 1 

Among objects found in excavating at Nippur were 
tablets inscribed to some deity with the avowed object 
of protecting the life of the kings. The inscription of 
an agate dedicated to Ishtar, " for the life of Dungi, 
King of Ur," places it about 2750 B. C. Four hun- 
dred and fifty years later it had been carried by the 
Elamites to Susa and offered in the temple. A 
thousand years later still Kurigalzu conquered Elam 
and re-inscribed this votive tablet : " Kurigalzu, King 
of Karduniash, conquered the palace of Susa in Elam, 
and presented this tablet to Belit, his mistress, for his 
life ; " by him it was taken to the temple of Bel at 
Nippur. 2 

According to the traditions of the Greeks, as related 
by Pausanias, in early times Demeter, the earth-god- 
dess, frequently visited Pheneus bringing with her 
certain kinds of pulse, but, in later times, for the visits 
of the goddess certain sacred writings were used in 
annual ceremonies. By the temple were two large 
stones known as Petroma, fitting into each other, con- 
taining a cavity in which were deposited these writings. 
Tli is Petroma was regarded with great reverence, and 
annually these stones were separated and these writings 
were taken out and read to the people while the priests 
with great ceremony struck the earth and summoned 
the gods of the lower world and the spirits of the soil. 3 

Says Professor Tylor : " Modern examples may be 

1 Threshold Covenant, H. V. Hilprecht in Supplement, p. 311. 

2 Nippur, John P. Peters, vol. ii, p. 255. 
8 Pausanias, book viii., chap. xv. 



Writings. 147 

brought forward to show ideas as extreme as those 
which prevailed more widely a thousand years ago/' 
On the festival of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, whose body 
lies buried in the church of the Jesuit College at Rome, 
college students write letters to him, which are placed 
on his decorated altar and then burned unopened, the 
miraculous answer to which is vouched for in an Eng- 
lish book of 1870. x 

As the ancient Egyptian thought it necessary to take 
with him to the tomb small statues of his servants that 
they might be ready to serve him in a future life, so he 
sometimes prepared himself with a household scribe. 
A famous statue now in the Museum of Ghizeh, which 
was taken from the tomb of a gentleman of the Fifth 
Dynasty, represents a scribe kneeling with crossed 
hands, waiting his master's orders. Another, in the 
Museum of the Louvre, " waits, pen in hand, till the 
next sentence shall fall from the lips of his employer." 2 

If the royal builders were to continue constructing 
palaces and temples in the future life care must be taken 
that their workmen might not be empty-hande'd. Di- 
minutive models of masonic tools, models of materials 
and models commemorative of the ceremonies performed 
in laying the foundations, were found under each corner 
of the gateway to the building of Ptolemy Philadelphus, 
at Naukratis. Similar deposits were found at Tell Ke- 
besheh under a temple in the ancient city of Am, and at 
Tell Gemayemi, in 1886, and at Tell Quarmus in 1887. 3 
A complete series of them are fouud in a pit of the rock 

1 Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 122. 

2 Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers, pp. 140, 141. 
8 Ibid., pp. 32, 63. 



148 Foundation Rites. 

at Deir el Bahri. 1 These deposits are usually inscribed, 
and are considered of great historical value in determin- 
ing the age and date of important buildings in Egypt. 2 
Foundation deposits of Tahutmes III. name him "be- 
loved of Hathor, Lady of Amu/' 3 and he is described as 
" beloved of Min of Koptos," on the models of tools, 
ores and vases discovered beneath the walls of the 
temple at Koptos. 4 

1 History of Egypt, W. M. F. Petrie, vol. ii., p. 94. 

2 Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers, p. 33. 

3 History of Egypt, vol. ii., p. 126. 
* Ibid., p. 128. 



Circular Movements and Symbols. 149 



CHAPTER XL 

CIRCULAR MOVEMENTS AND SYMBOLS. 

<e Among all primitive communities/' says Mr. 
Lawrence Gomme, " when a village was first estab- 
lished, a stone was set up. To this stone the head man 
of the village made an offering once a year." 1 In dis- 
cussing this subject Mr. Grant Allen expresses the 
opinion that " the entire primitive ritual of the foun- 
dation of a village consisted in killing or burying alive 
or building into a wall a human victim, as town or 
village god, and raising a stone and planting a tree 
close by to commemorate him." 2 The same author 
suggests that it is probable that the English village 
green and play-field are the space dedicated to this 
tribal or village god, and are usually connected with 
the sacred stone and sacred tree. 3 Here would be the 
natural center of a real or imaginary circle where the 
people would congregate on extraordinary occasions. 
Here important proclamations would be issued and 
village rites celebrated. 

In Esthonian districts, Professor Tylor says, the 
traveler might see, within the present century, the 
lime, oak or ash, "standing inviolate in a sheltered 
spot near the dwelling-house, and old memories are 

1 The Village Community, G. L. Gomme, p. 218. 

2 Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 257. 3 Ibid. 



150 Foundation Rites. 

handed down of the time when the first blood of a 
slaughtered beast was sprinkled on its roots." l When 
a new village is settled by the Khonds a sacred cotton 
tree is planted with solemn rites and beneath it placed 
the stone which enshrines the village deity. 2 The 
stone may be a casual boulder " picked out at hap- 
hazard," or " the holy monolith or headstone of some 
ancient chief." 3 

London Stone, which still stands carefully guarded and 
protected, is a lasting monument of this primitive foun- 
dation custom. It is not "known whether it dates from 
the earliest Eoman days or the Celtic village which 
preceded them/ From a curious chronicle of Holin- 
shed it is learned that the ceremonies took place at this 
stone, which conferred upon the Lord Mayor his offi- 
cial authority, for he says when the city fell into the 
hands of Jack Cade, in 1450, he first of all proceeded to 
London Stone and struck his sword, upon it, and then 
announced himself Lord of the City. 6 It is probable 
that oircumambulation of the stone formed a part of 
the official ceremony, for a similar stone still exists at 
Bovey Tracey in Devon, and it is known that the mayor 
formerly rode round it and struck it with a stick upon 
the first day of his official period. 6 It is impossible to 
say how much importance was attached to the act of 
going around the stone. It was undoubtedly a survival 
of ancient custom which continued long after its sig- 

1 Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 225. 2 Ibid. 

3 Popular Science Monthly, vol. xlii., p. 653. 

4 Ibid., p. 654. 

5 Village Communities, p. 218. 

6 Ibid., p. 219 ; Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 259. 



Circular Movements and Symbols. 151 

nificance was inconsiderable ; but as Mr. Gomme says, 
" In the history of human thought it will be found that 
the influences of traditional ideas far outweigh the 
influences of philosophy." ' In glancing briefly at some 
of the ceremonies of which circular movements have 
formed an essential part it will be seen that there is 
close relationship between them and fundamental prim- 
itive beliefs. 

A primitive home of the wild Bushmen of South 
Africa is described as a small circle of thorn trees round 
which skins of wild animals were stretched. 2 The 
village settlements of the Basutos are nearly always in 
the form of a vast circle of which the huts form the cir- 
cumference and their flocks occupy the center. After 
the site is selected the chief nails the village to the soil 
by driving a peg covered with charms into the ground. 
Near the habitation of the chief, which is on the highest 
ground, a circle is formed of rushes or boughs, where 
public affairs are discussed, lawsuits decided, and crim- 
inal causes adjudged. Perfectly round enclosures are 
made in the center of the village of branches of mimosa. 
This ground is regarded as holy and serves as a burial- 
place for the families of chiefs. The door by which they 
go in and out of the hut leads into a circular court 'sur- 
rounded by rushes or branches where the fire is located, 
and where the family assemble. 3 

Circular excavations surrounded with walls mark the 
site of prehistoric dwellings in villages in southeastern 
Missouri. Similar remains of circular dwellings can 

1 Village Communities, p. 18. 

2 Ibid., p. 8. 

» Ibid., pp. 12,13. 



152 Foundation Rites. 

still be made out among the archeological remains near 
Lebanon, Tennessee. 1 

At Chillicothe, Ohio, are the remains of a circle more 
than one hundred feet in diameter with walls not over 
four and a half to five feet high at the most, and traces 
of great numbers of small circles around the main en- 
closure. A circle and square adjoining at Hopetown 
together enclose twenty acres. A large circle at Liberty 
encloses forty acres, and a smaller one near it is five hun- 
dred feet in diameter. The diameter of the circle from 
which Circleville, Ohio, takes its name is 985 feet. 2 Burial 
mounds in the form of circles and half circles have been 
examined in Florida, Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota. 3 
The wood and clay houses of the Chibchacs on the table- 
lands of the Andes were surrounded by circular en- 
closures. 4 

The circular chamber known as the round room, or 
estufa, was one of the most striking features of the high 
houses of the cliff-dwellers, and shows that the circle 
had great significance among them. Of one of these, 
Mr. W. H. Holmes writes : " Their superstitions seem 
to have been so exacting in this matter that even when 
driven to the extremity of building and dwelling in the 
midst of these desolate cliffs, an enclosure of this form 
could not be dispensed with ; a circular estufa had to 
be constructed at whatever cost of labor and incon- 
So carefully was this chamber guarded 

1 Pre-Historic America, pp. 94, 96. 

2 Ibid., pp. 100,101. 
8 Ibid., pp. 120, 123. 
4 Ibid., p., 463. 
6 American Antiquarian, vol. xvii., p. 295. 



Circular Movements and Symbols. 153 

that one wishing to visit the estufa, in the dwelling 
described by this author, would have to crawl through 
a tube-like passage of solid masonry a distance of nearly 
twenty feet. 1 The estufa was sometimes surrounded 
by a series of chambers built in the form of a circle. 
Associated with the high cliff-dwellings were towers 
situated in the valley, or on slight eminences, or on 
isolated rocks. They were constructed in the shape 
of circles, and contained a central chamber, which was 
surrounded by a series of cells, also arranged in the form 
of a circle. 2 

Eemains of early village settlements in England in- 
dicate a circular formation. The top of Humbleton 
Hill is described as a center of a camp around the sum- 
mit of which is a large circle of rude stones, "them- 
selves arranged into smaller circles, each representing 
the dimensions of a hut." The remains of prehistoric 
buildings around Heethpool terraces show that the 
structures were of circular form. A circular fort en- 
closed circular habitations. Circular hut foundations 
are found in great numbers on the slopes of Greenshaw 
Hill. 3 

The Law-mount of the ancient Icelandic Common- 
wealth where the Al-thing, or national assembly, was 
held, which was located on the banks of a frightful 
precipice in a wild and desolate spot, had a mystic 
doom-ring of huge volcanic stones fixed in the earth. 
Here at the annual spring meetings the high courts were 
held. On the three rows of seats within the doom-ring 

1 American Antiquarian, vol. xvii., p. 295. 

2 Ibid., vol. xvii., pp. 297, 298. 

8 Village Communities, pp. 91-93. 



154 Foundation Rites. 

sat the public functionaries from all parts of the island. 
The inferior court, or Var thing, was held near the 
temple of the district, in which one of the magistrates 
performed a sacrifice and sprinkled the walls of the 
temple and the bystanders with blood of the victims, 
holding in his hands the massive silver circle used on 
every solemn occasion. Here took place the discus- 
sions of public affairs. Within the doom-ring formed 
of hazel twigs or upright stones the judges sat, while 
those they condemned to death had their backs broken 
on the huge stone with a sharp ridge which stood in the 
center of the circle. 1 

Explorations in Palestine have revealed the fact that 
many stone circles are still standing in the country east 
of the Jordan. The editor of the Polychrome Joshua 
identifies Tel Jeljul as the place where the twelve 
stones were set up as " a memorial of the day when the 
water of the Jordan was cut off at the approach of the 
Ark of the Covenant," which name says the author sig- 
nifies circuit and refers to a stone circle similar to 
those still found in the region East of the Jordan. 2 
The biblical name of the place, Gilgal, means wheel, 
says Mr. William Simpson, and the root of the word is 
connected with rolling. From this he thinks it may be 
taken -for granted they were placed in the form of a 
circle, "and that these, as well as other stone circles in 
that region, were put up mainly for the purpose of cir- 
cumambulation." 3 " This day have I rolled away the 
reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name 

1 Mallet' s Northern Antiquities, pp. 291-293. 

2 Polychrome Joshua, p. 61, note 8. 

8 The Buddhist Praying Wheel, p. 147. 



Circular Movements and Symbols. 155 

of the place is called Grilgal." ' Were the stones which 
Joshua set up in the bed of the Jordan in the footsteps 
of the priests who bore the Ark also arranged in a 
circle, and was the circumambulation of the circle 
where the priests stood a part of the mystic ceremony 
attending the heaping up of the waters of the river ? 

Circular movements in imitation of, and contrary to, 
the apparent motion of the sun have beeh a prominent 
feature in the ceremonial institutions of many races 
and people. One of the religious rites of the Egyptians 
consisted in drawing a peculiar kind of boat known as 
the bark of Sokar round the temple or town. Plutarch 
mentions the leading of the sacred cow seven times 
round the temple upon the beginning of the Winter 
Solstice. 2 The number of circuits corresponded to the 
number of months consumed in the passage of the sum 
to the Summer Tropic. These festivals were consid- 
ered of great importance and supposed to have much to 
do in regulating the rise and fall of the waters of the 
Nile. 

In the marriage ceremony of the Brahmans in the 
Code of Mann, the bridegroom leads his bride three 
times to the right round the sacred fire while repeating, 
"I am he, thou art she, I am the heaven, thou art the 
earth, come let us marry/' 3 The altar is circumam- 
bulated three times in the marriage ceremony in the 
Kussian-G-reek Church. 4 

He who would build a house in India is directed by 

1 Joshua v. 9. 

2 Isis and Osiris, chapter lii. 

3 Hindu Literature, Elizabeth A. Reed, p. 89. 
* The Buddhist Praying Wheel, p. 84. 



\ 



156 Foundation Rites. 

the formulas of the Sacred Books, after the ground has 
been properly inspected and tested, to thrice encircle it 
and sprinkle it with a branch of theUdumbara, having 
his right side turned toward it, and repeating a hymn ; 
thrice more he goes around it, pouring out water, and 
repeating : " waters, ye are wholesome/' 1 

In Indian philosophy, to make the circuit of holy 
Benares .secures a large credit of Karma, or merit. The 
sins committed in other places are wiped away. The 
virtue of it is even greater than " ten thousand horse 
sacrifices. " 2 Moving three times round a holy person, 
in India, is an old custom of showing respect, it is 
said. 3 So great would be the power and fascination of 
him who could revive the (i symphony and song " of the 
Abyssinian maid, in Kubla Khan, the poet thought, 
that all would cry : 

" Beware 1 Beware ! 
His flashing eyes, his floating hair I 
Weave a circle round him thrice, 
And close your eyes with holy dread, 
For he on honey dew hath fed, 
And drunk the milk of Paradise." 4 

To regain the love of his Daphnis Alphesiboeus pro- 
poses to draw her image entwined with three threads of 
three hues thrice round the altar. 6 

There was a custom among the American Indians 
that when the field of corn had been planted the house- 
wife stole out of the lodge the first dark night and, 

1 The Budhist Praying Wheel, p. 83. 

2 Ibid., pp. 80, 81. 8 Ibid., p. 82. 

4 Kubla Khan, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 

5 Virgil's Eclogues, viii. 






Circular Movements and Symbols. 157 

disrobing, dragged her principal garment round the 
cornfield to ensure a prolific crop. So after the plant- 
ing, "When the noiseless night descended" Laugh- 
ing Water "with darkness clothed and guarded" 

" Drew the sacred, magic circle 
Of her footprints round the cornfields 



So that neither blight nor mildew, 
Neither burrowing worm nor insect, 
Shall pass o'er the magic circle." * 

" And now about the caldron sing, 
Live elves and fairies in a ring, 
Enchanting all that you put in," 

says Hecate to the other three witches. 3 

Pope alludes to the ceremony of circumambulation 
in the Orient in the following lines : 

" As Eastern priests in giddy circles run 
And turn their heads to imitate the sun. 3 

Pausanias describes an (t invention and contrivance" 
to counteract the effects of the Southwest winds upon 
the vines at Methuna. This wind from the Saronic 
Gulf when blowing upon the growing vines scorches 
them. While it is sweeping down upon them, two 
men take a cock with only white feathers and tear it 
in half, and each runs round the vines in opposite 
directions with the half of the fowl in his hand, and 

1 Household Poems, H. W. Longfellow, p. 177. 

2 Macbeth, act iv., scene 1. 
8 Essay on Man, epistle ii. 



158 Foundation Rites. 

when they come back to the place of starting, they 
bury the divided cock, when the spirit of the evil wind 
is appeased. 1 

The Norse colonists in Ireland carried fire round the 
land they intended to occupy in order to expel evil 
spirits. 2 Bells were used in the sixteenth century to 
drive away witches. An old record describing the cere- 
mony of consecration and baptism by which they were 
first prepared, for this use says, "And first, they must 
hang so as the Byshop may goe round about them." 3 
Augustus Caesar, who had once narrowly escaped de- 
struction from lightning, encircled the summit of the 
temple of Jupiter Tonans which guarded the approach 
to the Capitol from the Forum, with little bells. 4 The 
hem of the holy robe of the ephod which encircled the 
shoulders and breast of Aaron when he entered the 
holy place must be guarded with bells of gold if he 
would escape death. 5 

When Iphigenia is about to be.sacrificed in the har- 
bor of Aulis to appease the hostile winds she bids them 
to enkindle the flames and begin the rites : " Let my 
father his right hand place on the altar . . . lead me . . . 
round the shrine, the altar round bear the lavers, 
which you fill from the pure translucent rill." 6 By 
direction of Achilles thrice they drove their "well- 

1 Pausanias, book ii., chap, xxxiv. 

2 Primitive Culture, vol. ii. , p. 195. 

3 History of the Warfare of Science with Theology, vol. i., p. 
346. 

4 Suetonius, Augustus Ccesar, chap. xci. 

5 Exodus xxviii. 34, 35. 

6 Works of Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis, Robert Potter's 
translation. 



Circular Movements and Symbols. 159 

maned steeds " round the dead body of Patroclus.' 
Virgil describes the funeral rites of Pallas : " Thrice 
round the lighted piles they rode, clad in glittering 
arms ; thrice on their horses they made the circuit of 
the sad funeral rites." 2 Before the fight between 
Achilles and Hector which presaged the fall of Troy, 
" thrice around Priam's city circled those twain with 
flying feet, and all the gods were gazing on them. " 3 
On the death of Hector, Achilles dragged the body 
thrice around Ilium's walls. 4 When Alexander went 
up to Ilium he anointed the pillar upon Achilles' tomb 
and ran round it naked with his friends, according to 
Plutarch, 5 as the custom was. 

In the oldest Arabian sacrifice, that of the holy 
camel, after the animal is bound to the primitive altar, 
or heap of stones, the leader of the band conducts the 
worshipers thrice round it chanting a solemn hymn, 
at the last words of which they fall upon the camel 
and drink its blood. 6 The circling of the Ka'abah, or 
God's House, at Mecca, is one of the most sacred cere- 
monies of the Mohammedans. According to Eobertson 
Smith it was originally connected with sacrifice, but 
this had begun to be disassociated with the rite even 
before the time of the great Prophet. 7 The ceremony 
was so fixed in the minds of the Arabs that it was adopt- 
ed into the new faith. The circumambulation begins 
and ends at the Black Stone. Seven circuits are made. 

1 Iliad, Translation of Lang, Leaf and Myer, xxiii. 

2 Works of Virgil, JEneid, Lonsdale and Lee's translation, 
xi. 3 Iliad, xxii. 4 iEneid, i. 

5 Plutarch's Alexander the Great. 

6 Religion of the Semites, p. 320. 7 Ibid., p. 322. 



160 Foundation Rites. 

The stone is kissed or touched at each circuit, or the 
forehead ruhbed upon it. 1 The accepted belief about 
the first Ka'abah, says Mr. Simpson, is that Allah 
created a model of it in heaven consisting of four jas- 
per pillars and a ruby roof, which the angels circum- 
ambulated crying out "Praise be to Allah, there is"no 
God but Allah." This also was the model of the 
temple which Allah ordered to be built on earth. 2 
Another version of the legend says Adam brought the 
Black Stone from Paradise, where he learned from the 
angel Jebrail the ceremonies of the circumambulation, 
and that he came with the angel to Mecca, where he 
laid the foundations of the Ka'abah, according to in- 
structions, and placed the Black Stone in the corner of 
the Ka'abah, depositing in it the covenant book of the 
servant with the Lord of Glory. 3 At Mecca the dead 
before burial are carried round the Ka'abah. One 
traveler says the dead body is placed near Abraham's 
stone so that the soul may pass out of it through the 
door of the Ka'abah. 4 

The Abyssinian priests go* three times round their 
altar at certain parts of the sacramental ceremony, which 
they say is done in imitation of David dancing round 
the Ark. 5 

A cure for possession when all others fail, among the 
Abyssinians, is to drag a white or red sheep three times 
round him on St. John's day at a spot where two roads 
cross each other, after which the sheep is slaughtered 

1 The Koran, George Sale, Preliminary Discourse, p. 93. 

2 The Buddhist Praying Wheel, pp. 127, 128. 
8 Ibid., p. 128, note. 

* Ibid., p. 135. 6 Ibid., p. 177. 



Circular Movements and Symbols. 161 

in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost. 1 

The circuit of the Holy Sepulcher is made by East- 
ern Christians at Easter on the occasion of the cere- 
mony of the sacred fire. Similar circumambulations 
are made by Greek bishops accompanied with crosses, 
banners and candlesticks. This ceremony is performed 
with the left hand inside, which Mr. Simpson con- 
jectures originated with rites connected with death. 2 
This author expresses the opinion that the performance 
of the Abyssinian priests and David's dancing are both 
continuations of a primitive Semitic Tawaf, which was 
primarily performed naked. 3 

At the annual festival of the patron saint at Kinne, 
in Upper Egypt, in 1813, an eye-witness reports that 
" each person as he arrived walked seven times round 
the small mosque which contained his tomb." 4 

In the coronation service of the King of Siam, in 
1875, five days after the ceremony the king made a 
public procession of " the circuit of the palace and city 
walls in a peculiar eircumambulatory march of mystic 
significance. 5 " In laying the foundation stone of a 
Catholic church, and in blessing a cemetery, circum- 
ambulations are made. Most of the processions in a 
church include the idea of a circuit." 6 A bride on her 
marriage among the Arabs is led three times round the 
bridegroom's tent before entering it, and in performing 
the ceremony of circumcision among them, mounted 
horsemen ride three times round the tent where it 



im 



1 The Buddhist Praying Wheel, p. 180. 2 Ibid., p. 1 
* Ibid., p. 154. * Ibid., p. 135. 6 Ibid., p. 275 

6 Ibid., p. 283. 
IX 



1 62 Foundation Rites. 

takes place. 1 A part of the wedding ceremony among 
the Mexicans in the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries consisted in having the bride walk seven 
times round the fire preceded by the priest. 2 With 
circular dances Swanfco Wit, the Solar god of the 
Sclaves, was worshiped, and like ceremonies continued 
among them after the Christian St. Vitus (Swante Vit) 
usurped the place formerly occupied by Swanto Wit. 3 

In the Book of Creation, the Sepher Yetzirali, a 
Kabbalistic work of celebrity, the origin of all things 
is ascribed to letters, numbers and words, and the 
Hebrew alphabet arranged upon a sphere was called 
" the Foundations. " If it rotated forward good was 
implied, but if the reverse, it meant evil. 4 The Cathach 
was a book supposed to have been written by St. 
Columba, and is said to have been a copy of the Gos- 
pels or Psalms, which, it was believed, if sent thrice 
rightwise round an army going into battle, ensured 
victory. 5 This imitation of the celestial movement 
secured the favor of Heaven, and the stars in their 
courses would not fight against them as against Sisera. 6 
Belief in the efficacy of movements with the sun is 
supposed to be symbolized by The Buddhist Praying 
Wheel, and to this belief some would trace the origin of 
those world-wide symbols, the swastika and the cross/ 

In ancient Vedic literature, Rita was the right path, 
it was the path which King Varuna, one of the oldest 

1 The Buddhist Praying Wlieel, p. 285. 

2 The Wedding Day in All Ages and Countries, E. J. Wood, 
p. 176. 3 The Buddhist Praying Wheel, pp. 292-294. 

4 Ibid., p. 152. 6 Ibid., p. 191. 6 Judges v. xx. 

7 The Buddhist Praying Wheel, pp. 104-108. 



Circular Movements and Symbols. 163 

Yedic gods, made for the sun to follow from his rising 
to his setting. It was the path of the dawn, followed 
by day and by night, it was the path which the powers 
of night and darkness could never impede. "It was 
the right movement, the good work, the straight path," 
and Rita came to be conceived as "the eternal founda- 
tion of all that exists. 1 The opposite direction, not 
according to the sun, was false, evil and untrue, and 
meant decay, destruction and death. 2 Circumambula- 
tions in the direction of the sun promoted stability, 
but in the opposite direction, they weakened and 
destroyed the foundations. 

Among the Celts and in the Highlands of Scotland, 
going round with the right hand to the center, was 
according to the course of the sun, and was productive 
of good and brought fortune, but if made in the oppo- 
site way, evil would follow. 3 Deasil processions (with 
the sun) were made round the church at marriages. Pro- 
cessions with lighted torches were made round the corn- 
fields to secure good crops. They marched around the 
sacred circle before offering sacrifice. 4 Widdershins 
was going in the opposite direction. In this way 
witches approached a sacred place and advanced to- 
wards the demons which they served. In Rev. Walter 
C. Smith's poem, " The Confession of Annaple Growdie," 

she says : 

" Hech ! sirs, but we had grand fun 
Wi' the muckle black deil in the chair, 
And the muckle Bible upside down, 
A' gangin' withershins roun' and roun', 
And backwards saying the prayer. 

1 Tlie Buddhist Praying Wheel, p. 262. 

2 Ibid., pp. 90, 91. 8 Ibid., p. 92. * Ibid., p. 189, note. 



164 Foundation Rites. 

About the warlock's grave 
Withershins gangin' roun', 
And kimmer and carline had for licht 
The fat o' a bairn they buried that nicht, 
Unchristened beneath the moon." 1 

In the consecration of a Jewish synagogue tbe Eolls 
of the Law are carried with great solemnity round it. 
The mourners join hands and make circuits round the 
body at burials in Jerusalem. 2 Once each day for six 
days the armed men and the priests compassed the city 
of Jericho, and on the seventh clay seven circuits were 
made round the doomed city when the foundations 
gave way and the walls fell flat. 3 "No matter what 
interpretation may be put upon the narrative," says 
Mr. Simpson, "it shows that a very high influence was 
ascribed to the rite of circumambulation. If it was 
believed that going round a city would end in its com- 
plete destruction, we may be almost certain that many 
other rites of similar kind were practised of which no 
record has come down to us." 4 Blowing the rams' horns 
is apparently a conspicuous part of the ceremony which 
preceded the fall of the city, but according to the new 
rendering in colors of the Polychrome Joshua it was in 
the last editing of the book that the phrases were inter- 
polated which make the blowing of the horns so promi- 
nent, and this the editor places at a period from two to 
four hundred years later than the primitive parts of it 
were written. 5 

In the Eig Veda the sun was likened to a wheel. 6 It 

1 The Buddhist Praying Wheel, p. 183. 2 Ibid., p. 281. 

3 Joshua, chap. vi. 4 The Buddhist Praying Wheel, p. 147. 

5 The Polychrome Joshua, chap. vi. 

6 The Buddhist Praying Wheel, p. 109. 



Circular Movements and Symbols. 165 

was the leader of the celestial host and its rolling 
brought in its season every good thing. Wheels were 
inserted into the pillars of the temples in Japan. 1 
Wheels were among the symbols carried in the mystic 
processions of the Greeks. 2 The Tibetan Buddhist 
"Wheel of the Law which Buddha instructed Ananda 
how to construct was placed at the gate of the temple. 
The twelve spaces of its rim, the twelvefold circle of 
causation, represented the complete circle of existence.* 
The story is told of the Bunneah in India who was able 
to dispel the rain-clouds and raise the price of corn by 
means of his wheel constructed of dead men's bones, 
which he instructed his virgin daughter to turn in a 
way opposite to that of the sun/ 

Chnemu, one of the oldest of the Egyptian gods, is 
represented as making man out of clay on a potter's 
wheel. 5 A fiery wheel as a symbol of the solar disc 
was swung about by the Sclaves in their religious cir- 
cular dances. 6 The felloes and spokes of the four 
wheels in the vision of Ezekiel were full of eyes round 
about and the spirit of the living creature was in them. T 

The circumambulation of sacred shrines and persons 
was only another form of the circular motion having the 
same symbolism as the wheel. 8 Like symbolism is 
manifested in the building of temples in circular form. 

1 Ibid., p. 116, quoting from Miss Gordon Gumming. 

2 Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 60. 

3 The Buddhist Praying Wheel, pp. 116, 275. 
* Ibid., pp. 103, 183. 

5 TJie Mummy, p. 275. 

6 Tlie Buddhist Praying Wheel, p. 293. 

7 Exodus, chapter i., verses 18, 21. 

8 Tlie Buddhist Praying Wheel, p, 258. 



1 66 Foundation Rites. 

Such was the temple at Rome of Vesta. 1 Such were 
the circles of stones in the center of which they kindled 
the sacred fire among the ancient Persians. 2 Such 
was the celebrated circular group of gigantic rocks on 
Salisbury plain known in history as Stonehenge. 

1 Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 27. 

2 Ibid., p. 61. 






Stones. 167 



CHAPTER XII. 

STONES. 

When the Lord answers Job out of the whirlwind, 
he asks : " Where wast thou when I laid the foundation 
of the earth ? Declare, if thou hast understanding. 
Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest ? 
Or who hath stretched the line upon it ? Whereupon 
are the foundations thereof fastened ? Or who laid the 
corner stone thereof, when the morning stars sang to- 
gether, and all the sons of God shouted for joy ? " * 

According to one of the medieval legends, the orig- 
inal stone of the foundation came into the possession 
of Adam while in the garden of Eden, and was after- 
wards taken by Noah with him into the Ark, and finally 
found a resting-place on Ararat. 3 

In the life of Jesus, the Toldoth Jesliu, which was 
written in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, it 
is said that in the time of Jesus there was in the temple 
a stone of the foundation, and that it was the very one 
which Jacob had used for a pillow on the way to Haran 
when he saw the angels ascending and descending the 
ladder which reached up to heaven, and which he after- 
wards set up for a pillar and called it " God's house," 3 
the home of the " indwelling spirit." 4 Upon this stone 

1 Job xxxviii. 4-7. 

2 Encyclopedia of Masonry, Albert G. Mackey, p. 752. 
8 Genesis xxviii. 12-22. 

4 Principles of Sociology, vol. i. , p. 791. 



1 68 Foundation Rites. 

the letters of the " tetragrammaton " were inscribed, and 
whoever of the Israelites should learn that name would 
be able to master the world. 1 

Again it is told that when King David was preparing 
to lay the foundation of the temple he came upon a 
certain stone upon which the name of God was written, 
and that he placed it in the Holy of holies in his 
temple.' 2 

Among many races certain stones have been reverenced 
as the shrines of gods through which communications 
were made to men, or supernatural power conveyed. 
The Greeks believed that ghosts dwelt in stones and 
stones were the shrines of their gods. 3 Pausanias re- 
lates that a small stone stood near the tomb of the son 
of Achilles which was anointed daily with oil, and upon 
it at every festival raw wool was placed, and, according 
to tradition, this stone was the very son of Cronos.* 
" Men and stones and beasts and gods and thunder," 
had interchangeable forms, says Andrew Lang. 5 "Of 
course not the rudest savage believes," says Eobertson 
Smith, " that in setting up a sacred stone he is making 
a new god ; what he does believe is that the god comes 
into the stone, dwells in it or animates it, so that for 
practical purposes the stone is thenceforth an embodi- 
ment of the god, and may be spoken of and dealt with 
as if it were the god himself." 6 The stone which 

1 Encyclopedia of Masonry, p. 752. 

2 Ibid., p. 752. 

3 Principles of Sociology, vol. i., p. 790. 

4 Pausanias, x., xxiv. 

6 Myth, Ritual and Religion, vol. i., p. 152, 
6 Religion of the Semites, p. 189. 



Stones. 169 

Joshua set under au oak by the sanctuary in Shechem 
heard "all the words of the Lord which he spake," and 
became a " witness unto them." * A missionary to 
Tanna, one of the New Hebrides, reports that the 
natives preserve as deities certain stones which the 
spirits of their dead ancestors entered into.'" The 
Peruvians venerated certain stones which they believed 
had once been living men. 3 Myths connecting "both 
men and gods with animals, plants and rocks are found 
all over the world." 4 The Oneidas and. Dacotahs 
claimed descent from stones. 5 A stone was placed 
between the lips of the dying or dead chief of the Aztecs, 6 
that the stone might receive his soul. 7 It might also 
protect from the evil spirits seeking entrance to the 
body. Precious stones also decked the mantle which 
covered the body to protect it from the evil spirit of the 
winds. 8 Peruvian tradition said the IncaViracochehad 
endowed stones with life and thus created the first men 
and women. 9 Peter speaks of Jesus as a " living stone." 10 
" God is able of these stones to raise up children unto 
Abraham," said John the Baptist. 11 
The stone under the cotton-tree of the Khond village 

1 Joshua xxiv. 27. 

2 Principles of Sociology, vol. i., p. 790. 

3 Ibid., p. 310. 

* Religion of the Semites, p. 86. 

5 Myth, Ritual and Religion, vol. i.,p. 150. 

6 Pre-Historic America, p. 301. 

7 Principles of Sociology, vol. i., p. 311. 

8 Pre-Historic America, p. 300. 

9 Ibid., p. 430. 

10 I. Peter ii. 4. Revised Version, 

1 1 Matthew iii. 9 ; Luke iii. 8. 



170 Foundation Rites. 

was the shrine of Nadzu Pennu the village deity. 1 The 
stone which represented the god Butakept in the house 
by the Bakadara and Betadara restrained the demon- 
souls of the dead. 2 Eound stones were preserved in 
certain mountainous districts of Norway, to the end 
of the last century, Mr. Tylor says, which were washed 
every Thursday evening (Thor's day) and smeared with 
butter before the fire, and sometimes steeped with ale, 
that they might bring luck to the house. 3 

Pliny refers to a book written by Lachalios of Baby- 
lon and dedicated to Mithridates on the power of pre- 
cious stones. 4 Amulets of turquoise were worn by the 
Cliff-dwellers. 5 A woman was specially sacrificed in 
Michoacan on the death of a chief, to take charge of 
the sacred emerald which he wore in his lip. 6 An 
offering of precious stones was sent to the patron saint 
of Gilgamesh when he and Eabani had destroyed the 
divine bull which Ishtar in her wrath had turned upon 
them/ The heliotrope protected the wearer by render- 
ing him invisible. 8 The naked spirits ran to and fro 
in Dante's Hell without " hope of hole or heliotrope" 
to conceal them from the serpents. 9 Greater healing 
power was supposed to be imparted to the precious 
stones by the ceremony of blessing the jewels by the 
English Kings in Westminster Abbey on Good Friday. 10 

1 Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 163. 

2 Ibid. 3 Ibid., vol. ii., p. 167. 

4 Origin and Growth of the Healing Art. , p. 257. 

5 Pre-Historic America, p. 246. 6 Ibid., p. 304. 

7 Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 486. 

8 Animal Symbolism in Ecclesiastical Architecture, p. 35. 

9 Dante's Inferno, Longfellow's translation, xxiv. 93. 

1° Animal Symbolism in Ecclesiastical Architecture, p. 43. 



Stones. 171 

Moore, in Lalla R00M, alludes to the unnumbered 
rubies beneath the forty pillars of the ruins of Persepolis, 
and the jeweled cup of King Jamshid which the Genii 
had hidden beneath the foundations of the city. 1 

Tacitus describes the manner in which the foundations 
were laid for the new temple of Jupiter when Vespasian 
rebuilt the capitol. The whole space devoted to the 
sacred structure was encompassed with chaplets and 
garlands. Distinguished soldiers entered the enclosure 
with branches of trees emblematical of good fortune. 
Vestal virgins sprinkled the place with water from living 
fountains. The ground was purified by the sacrifice of 
swine, sheep and a bull. The tutelar deities of the 
empire were invoked to prosper the undertaking. Then 
Helvidius Priscus, the Praetor, " laid his hand upon 
the wreaths that bound the foundation stone and were 
twined about with cords ; at the same time, the magis- 
trates, the priests, the senators, the knights and a 
number of citizens, with simultaneous efforts, prompt- 
ed by zeal and exultation, haled the ponderous stone 
along." All then threw upon the foundations ores of 
metals of various kinds as they had come from the 
mines, being enjoined by the soothsayers that any stones 
or jewels which had been used for other purposes would 
profane the building. 2 

Of the foundations of the temple which Solomon built 
it is written : " And the king commanded, and they 
brought great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, 
to lay the foundation of the house. And Solomon's 
builders and Hiram's builders did hew them, and the 

1 Paradise and the Peri, Thomas Moore. 

2 Tacitus' History, book iv., chap. 53. 



172 Foundation Rites. 

stone-squarers ; so they prepared timber and stone to 
build the house." 1 The foundation of the house which 
Solomon built for the daughter of Pharaoh " was of 
costly stones, even great stones, stones of ten cubits, 
and stones of eight cubits." 2 

In the vision of the seer the foundations of the city 
of the New Jerusalem, " were garnished with all manner 
of precious stones." " The first foundation was jasper; 
the second sapphire ; the third a chalcedony ; the fourth 
an emerald ; the fifth, sardonyx ; the sixth, sardius ; 
the seventh, chrysolite ; the eighth, beryl ; the ninth, 
a topaz ; the tenth, a chrysoprasus ; the eleventh, a 
jacinth ; the twelfth, an amethyst ; and the twelve 
gates were twelve pearls and every several gate was of 
one pearl." 3 The special significance of these precious 
stones, and their relation to the Church, are amplified 
in a medieval German poem, " Concerning the Heavenly 
Jerusalem " : Jasper is the foundation of the Church 
and preserves against devilish wiles. Sapphire typifies 
those whose thoughts are on heavenly things, being 
the color of the heavens. Sardius signifies the blood 
of the martyrs. Those only can enter the Heavenly 
City who practise the virtues shadowed forth by these 
precious stones. This " fantastic and absurd " symbol- 
ism, says Professor Evans, " holds a prominent place in 
sacred art, and determines, to a considerable degree, the 
kind of stones used in ecclesiastical architecture, as well 
as in ornamenting sacerdotal vestments, crucifixes, rosa- 
ries, chalices, and other sacramental utensils." 4 

1 1. Kings v. 17, 18. 2 Ibid., vii. 10. 

3 Revelation, xxi. 19-21. 

4 Animal Symbolism in Ecclesiastical Architecture, p. 40. 



Stones. 173 

In the " Schoole of Salerne " written in 1624, it is af- 
firmed that there is great efficacy and virtue in stones, 
though it may not always be perceived. 1 

The protective power of the agate is amplified in the 
Saxon Leech Booh. Thunder does not scathe the 
man who hath the stone with him. '< On whatsoever 
house it is therein a fiend may not be." " Sorcery 
hurteth not the man who hath the stone with him." " No 
bite of any kind of snake may scathe him who tasteth 
the stone in liquid." 2 

Anciently the topaz was thought to keep the soul 
pure and chaste. The carbuncle protected the wearer 
against the look of the basilisk and the evil eye and 
counteracted poisons, purified the air and prevented 
epilepsy. Lapis-lazuli worn by children made them 
truthful and fearless. Corals warded off evils and 
withstood the power of witches. Jasper staunched 
blood and cured dropsy. Eock-crystal possessed lac- 
tific virtue if worn in necklaces by wet-nurses. 3 

Specific virtues according to the months of the year 
are assigned to precious stones by the Arabians. Jan- 
uary is the month for hyacinth, or redzircon ; Febru- 
ary, for amethyst ; heliotrope must be worn in March, 
to be most effective ; the sapphire and diamond, in 
April ; the emerald, in May ; agates, in June ; carne- 
lians, in July ; in August, the onyx ; in September, 
the chrysolite ; in October, the opal ; the topaz, in No- 
vember ; and the turquoise, in December. 4 

1 Origin and Growth of the Healing Art, p. 394. 

2 Ibid., p. 257. 

8 Animal Symbolism in Ecclesiastical Architecture, p. 36. 
* Ibid., p. 37. 



174 Foundation Rites. 

It is said that on a certain island of the Samoan 
group, a number of fancy Fijian stones were kept in a 
temple and consulted in time of war, when the priest 
built them up in a form of wall, and watched to see 
which way they fell. If they fell to the westward, it 
was a sign the enemy there was to be driven, but if 
they fell in the opposite direction it was a warning of 
defeat. 1 

When Abraham and Ishmael raised the foundations of 
the " holy house of Mecca/' and covenanted that it 
should be a place of security, the sacred stone upon 
which Abraham stood was designated as a place for 
prayer. 2 His footstep is still traced in the stone which 
served him for a scaffold, rising and falling of itself 
as he had occasion. 8 

The small, oval, composite 4 stone of the Ka'abah, 
once white as milk, now black with the sins of man- 
kind, is sometimes called the right hand of God on 
earth. 5 The touch of it is the foundation of the hope 
of many millions of human beings. 

Hume says : " There was a stone to which the popu- 
lar superstition of the Scots paid the highest venera- 
tion ; all their Kings were seated on it when they re- 
ceived the rite of inauguration ; an ancient tradition 
assured them that, wherever this stone was placed, 
their nation should always govern ; and it was carefully 
preserved at Scone, as the true palladium of their mon- 

1 Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 111. 

2 The Koran, chap. ii. 

3 Ibid., chap, iii., and Preliminary Discourse, p. 92. 

4 The National Magazine, vol. x., p. 558. 

5 Preliminary Discourse, p. 91. 



Stones. 175 

archy." 1 Legend has identified this stone with the 
pillow which Jacob anointed at Bethel. 2 According to 
other legends, it was the ancestral god of the Irish 
Scots, and once stood at Tara, on the royal tumulus. 
They carried it with them to Argyllshire, and placed it 
in a cranny of the wall at Dunstaffnage Castle, 3 whence 
it was removed by the Scotch Kings to Scone, which, 
from the presence of the famous stone, became the prin- 
cipal seat of authority in the Kingdom. Edward I. 
carried it to England where it has since remained in 
Westminster Abbey, except when it was removed to 
Westminster Hall when Cromwell was installed as 
Lord Protector, that he might be placed upon it. All 
the sovereigns, from Edward I. to Victoria, have been 
crowned above it. Dean Stanley says : <l It is the one 
primeval monument which binds together the whole 
Empire . . . embedded in the heart of the English mon- 
archy, it is an element of poetic, patriarchal, heathen 
times, which, like Araunah/s rocky threshing-floor in 
the midst of the Temple of Solomon, carries back our 
thoughts to races and customs now almost extinct ; a 
link which unites the throne of England to the tradi- 
tions of Tara and Iona, and connects the charm of onr 
complex civilization with the forces of our mother 
earth, — the stocks and stones of savage nature. - " 4 

1 Hume's History of England, vol. ii., p. 100. 

2 The Threshold Covenant, p. 269. 

3 Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 112. 

4 The Threshold Covenant, p. 269, quoting from Dean Stan- 
ley's Historic Memorials of Westminster Abbey. 



176 Foundation Rites. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

SACRED COLOES. 

" Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and 
lay thy foundations with sapphires," was the promise 
of the Prophet to the afflicted, tempest-tossed and un- 
comforted. " And I will make thy windows of agates, 
and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of 
pleasant stones . . . thou shalt not fear . . . terror 
shall not come near thee ... no weapon that is formed 
against thee shall prosper." 1 Job coupled " the stones 
of darkness and the shadow of death/' 2 and the Seer 
pledged " to him that overcometh " a white stone in 
which was written a new name which {i no man know- 
eth saving he that receiveth it." 3 He shall be clothed 
in " white raiment " and become a pillar in the Temple 
of God. 4 

In the Chinese legend, when the evil spirit, Kung- 
Kung, had been overcome in war, in his anger, he 
knocked down and broke with his head, one of the pil- 
lars of the sky, so that the vault of heaven fell in and 
the flood overwhelmed the earth. Then Niu-Noa saved 
himself in his boat, and he polished a stone of five 
colors with which he fastened the heavens and lifted 
them up. 5 

i Isaiah liv. 11-17. 2 Job xxviii. 3. 

8 Revelation ii. 17. * Ibid. iii. 5, 12. 

5 Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, p. 127. 



Sacred Colors. 177 

In the mythology of Yucatan the four gods Bacab 
were supposed to stand at the four corners of the earth 
supporting the overhanging firmament. Each repre- 
sented a certain quarter of the compass and was dis- 
tinguished by a specific color. At the flood all other 
gods and men perished, but these escaped and peopled 
the earth anew. Ked was the color of the chief min- 
isters of the highest power. 1 Gates opening toward the 
cardinal points in Chinese cities are painted of certain 
colors. From similar association are derived the names 
of the Eed Sea, the Black Sea, and the Yellow Sea. 2 

Mr. Payne Knight says : " It seems probable that the 
sanctity attributed to red or purple color arose from 
its similitude to that of blood." 3 Indian words for red 
and blood are in some cases almost identical. Dr. Brin- 
ton gives " onekwensa" as the Iroquois for blood, and 
"onekwentura" for red, and in Algonkin, " mishwi " 
is blood and "mishkoda" is red. 4 

The Dacotah paints his deity with red pigment be- 
fore praying to it. Among the offerings of the Bodo and 
the Dhimails are red lead or cochineal. " We may sus- 
pect," says Mr. Spencer, (i that these three coloring 
matters, having red as their common character, are 
substitutes for blood. The supposed resident ghost 
was at first propitiated by anointing the stone with 
human blood ; and then, in default of this, red pig- 
ment was used ; ghosts and gods being supposed by prim- 
itive men to be easily deceived by shams." 5 In the 

1 Myths of the New World, pp. -08, 99. 2 Ibid., p. 97, note. 
8 Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 120. 
4 Myths of the New World, p. 163, note. 
6 Principles of Sociology, vol. i., p. 791. 

12 



178 Foundation Rites. 

blood was the life, 1 and by it, or its substitutes, the favor 
and protection of the indwelling spirit was assured, or 
it might be conceived as vivifying the stone itself. 

One of the means by which a tutelary deity known 
as the suhman is procured, among some African tribes, 
is by taking red earth and mixing a paste of it with 
blood, into which the red tail-feathers of a parrot are 
stuck. The suhman possesses supernatural powers. It 
protects houses from fire, guards against accidents, and 
brings death to its owner's enemies, or to the enemies of 
him to whom the use of the suhman has been permitted. 2 

Red-painted stones set at the foot of the sacred Vata- 
tree protect children in India, and a row of stones 
daubed with red paint set up in the field act as its guard- 
ian. 3 The Gonds kidnapped Brahman boys for sacrifi- 
cial victims for the sowing and reaping, sprinkling their 
blood over the plowed field or the mature crop. Blood 
was deemed essential to the cultivation of turmeric, for 
it would not have a deep red color without the shedding 
of blood. 4 It was an early Canadian belief that bloodroot 
grew only in the woods where an Indian had once been 
buried. 5 Eoses sprang up from the blood of Venus 
when she was pricked by thorns as she ran towards the 
dying Adonis, and ' ' Roses of Jericho " blossomed in 
the trail of Our Lady, the Mother of Grace, when, walk- 
ing upon a rock, she cut her heel. 6 

1 Genesis ix. 4 ; Leviticus xvii. 11. 

2 Travels in West Africa, Mary H. Kingsley, p. 511. 

3 Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 164. 

4 The Golden Bough, vol. i., p. 384. 

6 Popular Science Monthly, vol. xlii., p. 490. 
6 Primitive Folk, p. 316. 



Sacred Colors. 179 

The astronomer-poet of Persia sings : 

"I sometimes think that never blows so red 
The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled ; 
That every Hyacinth the Garden wears 

Dropt in her lap from some once lovely Head." 1 

In a note to this stanza the translator says : " I am 
reminded of an old English superstition, that our Anem- 
one Pulsatilla, or purple e Pasque Flower ' (which grows 
plentifully about the Fleam Dyke, near Cambridge), 
grows only where Danish blood has been spilt." 2 

The literature of Magic furnishes abundant testimony 
to the widely-spread belief of the connection of scarlet 
and the supernatural. A red powder was one of the 
two mysterious substances of which so much was made 
by the celebrated Count Cagliostro, the Italian charla- 
tan, who attracted so much attention in the last cen- 
tury. This was the substance with which he transmuted 
the baser metals into gold, or was supposed to have 
done so. 

The priestess of the temple of Apollo tasted of the 
blood of the lamb which was sacrificed every month and 
became possessed by the god. 3 Among the natives of 
Xew Zealand, before the spirit of the Atua would take 
possession of the god, when the priest was preparing 
an incantation, he must first bandage the god's chin 
with a fillet of red parrot feathers. 4 In early times the 
faces of the Eoman gods were painted red, and the 

1 Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Edward Fitzgerald's trans- 
lation, xix. 

2 Note 10 to Fitzgerald's Omar Khayyam. 
8 Pausanias, book ii. , chap. xxiv. 

4 Science and Hebrew Tradition, T. H. Huxley, p. 332. 



i8o Foundation Rites. 

bodies of the consuls and dictators during the sacred 
ceremony of the triumph, and from this custom came 
the imperial purple of later times. 1 It was the color 
sacred to the gods and the divine kings. The two 
wooden statues of Dionysus at Corinth had their faces 
painted red. 2 Fetish-stones among savages, as a rule, 
are daubed with red paint. 3 Red is sacred to Tangaloa, 
Lord of Light, principal deity of Polynesia, and the red 
light of the dawn, Tsuni Goab, is the supreme god of 
the Hottentots of South Africa. 4 The royal color of the 
sacred Incas was red. A llama swathed in a red gar- 
ment was the Peruvian sacrifice to fire. Their war 
paint and war wampum were red. 5 The legs of their 
mummies are painted red. Bladders of red powder were 
placed beside the dead. Circles of red stones sur- 
rounded the huacas -containing their dead. 6 The red 
thread of the Inca's turban was regarded with the same 
significance as the signet ring of an oriental despot. 7 

In the armies against Nineveh the shields of the 
" mighty men" were red, and they were clothed in 
scarlet. 8 Daniel was clothed in scarlet after he had in- 
terpreted the handwriting on the wall. 9 With scarlet 
wool and hyssop Moses sprinkled with blood the book 
and the people after he had spoken the precepts of the 

1 Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 120. 

2 Pausanias, book ii. , chap. 2. 

3 Myth, Ritual and Religion, A. Lang, vol. i., p. 294. 

4 Religions of Primitive People, D. G. Brinton, pp. 74, 75. 
6 Myths of the New World, p. 163. note. 

6 Pre- Historic America, p. 433. 

7 The Conquest of Peru, W. H. Prescott, vol. i., p. 70. 

8 Nahum ii. 3. 
• Daniel v. 29. 



Sacred Colors. 181 

law to them. 1 Saul clothed the daughters of Israel in 
scarlet. 2 All the household of the good wife are clothed 
in scarlet, says the Proverb. 3 The scarlet cord with 
which Joshua's spies were let down by was the signal in 
the window for the Israelites when they entered the 
city. 4 Badgers' skins dyed red and rams' skins were 
offerings for the tabernacle, and red and blue and 
purple and scarlet were the curtains and the vail, the 
hangings for the door and the gate of the court, of the 
garments of the priests and the ephod and the girdle. 6 

Eed was the color of the Egyptian sacrificial oxen. 
A single hair, white or black, made the beast unac- 
ceptable as an offering, and, to sacrifice one condemned, 
was death. 6 Red-haired men were their human sacri- 
fices. Their ashes scattered over the fields promoted 
the growth of the crops. 7 At death, a little red-haired 
dog accompanied the Aztec chief, to guide him across 
the Chicunahuapan, or nine torrents. 8 The water of 
separation for the purification of the unclean was made 
from the ashes of a red heifer without spot, while cedar 
wood and hyssop and scarlet were cast into the fire. 9 

By scattering red written slips the Chinese communi- 
cate with evil spirits. Chin Lung, a Christian convert 
died at Bellevue Hospital, New York, March 30, 1899. 
Chee Mung claimed his body and gave him burial ac- 
cording to the rites of his ancestors. The burial took 

1 Hebrews ix. 19. 2 I. Samuel i. 24. 

3 Proverbs xxxi. 21. 4 Joshua ii. 18, 21. 

5 Exodus xxv. 5 ; xxvi. 31 ; xxviii. 4-8. 

6 Herodotus, bk. ii., c. 38 ; Plutarch's Isis and Osiris, xxxi. 

7 The Golden Bough, vol. i., p. 306. 

8 Pre-Historic America, p. 300. 9 Numbers xix. 2, 6. 



182 Foundation Rites. 

place at midnight when the evil spirits were notified 
through written papers of bright red which were scat- 
tered, that Chin Lung's conversion had been only a 
pretense and that he had died loyal to Confucius. In 
concluding the burial, joss-sticks were lighted and more 
red papers strewn. * , 

A red woolen bag tied to doorposts and windows pro- 
tected children against witches in ancient Italy, 2 and a 
red woolen bag sewed with red woolen thread brought 
good fortune. 3 'Seeds of rose and cummin and leaves 
of nettle and rue, if bound with red ribbon, was a charm 
for divination. 4 

The peony was of divine origin among the ancient 
Greeks, and it drove away evil spirits, 5 and cured epil- 
epsy. 6 Disease, according to ancient theories, was 
caused by the anger of the gods, or the revenge of evil 
spirits, who must be driven out or conciliated. Red 
remedies and red cows had power over blood diseases. 7 
Red bed-hangings, and drapery, and infusions of red 
berries were good to dislodge the demons who caused 
scarlet fever and smallpox. 8 Chips and handkerchiefs 
dipped in the blood of King Charles I., were efficacious 
in many diseases. 9 A work of the fourteenth century, 
which was popular for two centuries, prescribed for small- 
pox that the patient be wrapped in scarlet cloth, and 
everything about the bed be made of red. 10 Hyssop and 

1 The New York Times, April 1, 1899. 

2 Etruscan Roman Remains, p. 263. 

a Ibid., p. 286. * Ibid., p. 308. 

6 Origin and Growth of the Healing Art, p. 251. 
e Ibid., p. 256. 7 Ibid., p. 251. » Ibid., p. 258. 

9 Ibid., p. 373. 10 Ibid., p. 327. 






Sacred Colors. 183 

scarlet and cedar wood and a live bird dipped in the 
blood of a slain bird over running water was an incan- 
tation of the Hebrews for driving leprosy from the 
house. ' The ancient tradition survives in modern times 
in the somewhat widely extended belief that scarlet 
flannels are more efficacious in preventing sickness. 

The hand dipped in sacrificial blood and stamped on 
the doorposts and lintels of houses was the covenant of 
man with the gods, and secured protection. 2 The red 
hand is still stamped on houses in the region of ancient 
Babylonia. It is seen in Jerusalem. The hand is 
drawn on the lintel or above the arch of the door, and 
colored with vermilion. 3 The Jewish and Arab masons 
paint it on houses in course of construction. It is good 
against the power of the evil eye. It is found on the 
houses of Jews, Muslims and Christians in various parts 
of Palestine. It is seen on the mosque of Saint Sophia 
where Mohammed II. dipped his hand in the blood of 
Christians and stamped it on the walls as the seal of his 
victory. 4 The red hand was found on the doorways 
and the walls of ruined buildings of Yucatan, where it 
was fixed as a token of covenant with the guardian 
deity. 6 The red hand was the primitive seal which 
survives at the present time in the large red seal at- 
tached to important documents of state. 6 

1 Leviticus xiv. 6, 14, 49, 51, 52. 

2 The Threshold Covenant, p. 74. 
s Ibid., p. 75. 

* Ibid., pp. 75, 76. 
5 Ibid., pp. 81, 82. 
« Ibid., p. 94. 



184 Foundation Rites. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

PILLARS A2TD SITES. 

A tablet of ancient Accadian laws contains the fol- 
lowing, as translated by Professor Sayce : "A town, 
(a man) has named ; its foundation stone he has not 
laid; (yet) he (can) change it." 1 When the foun- 
dation was once laid permanence was given to the site 
and also to the name itself. The name might be 
changed before the ceremony had taken place, but after 
that there was a sacredness attached to the site with 
which even the name was identified. It had then be- 
come a personality, something endowed with life. 
Some ancient authors speak of the walls of the cities, 
except the gates, as sacred. 2 In speaking of the 
English Coronation Stone, Mr. Trumbull says : " As 
in ancient Babylonia, in Egypt, in Syria, in India, in 
China, in Arabia, in Greece, in Scandinavia, the one 
primitive foundation was deemed the only foundation 
on which to build securely with divine approval, so in 
the very center of the highest modern civilization the 
reputed foundation of the Kingdom is deemed the only 
secure coronation, or installation, seat of King, Queen, 
or Lord Protector." 3 

1 Records of the Past, vol. iii., p. 23. 

2 Tlie Threshold Covenant, p. 265, Appendix, 
s Ibid., p. 269. 



Pillars and Sites. 185 

The first temple foundation, among primitive peoples, 
is the foundation for all subsequent temple building at 
that place, whether the threshold, hearthstone or 
corner-stone is considered the foundation. The grand- 
est temples in ancient Babylonia were supposed to be 
built on the foundations of earlier temples. Confusion 
and imperfection followed if there was variation from 
the original foundation. 1 One of the names of a 
zikkurat to Marduk in Babylonia signified "the foun- 
dation stone of heaven and earth." Their sacred edi- 
fices were the dwellings of the gods to whom they were 
dedicated, and the names assigned them were expres- 
sive of the distinctive attributes of the indwelling 
deities. The " true house, or fixed house, established, 
eternal," was indicated by the name of the famous 
temple to Nabu in Borsippa. 2 Eeligious doctrines 
underwent changes, new interpretations were given to 
them, but the history of some of their sanctuaries are 
traced for thousands of years. The later builders re- 
joiced when they came upon the old foundation stones. 
They sought them out and took pains to preserve them 
and their dedicatory inscriptious. They clung tena- 
ciously to the old sites, being careful not to offend the 
memory of their predecessors. 3 

Nabonnedos, the last Babylonian king before the 
coming of Cyrus, repaired the temples of the Sun 
and Venus at Sippara, and carefully replaced the 
foundation cylinder. 4 Sennacherib replaced the timin 
of the temple of Ishtar at Nineveh, and with a " layer 

1 TJie TJiresJiold Covenant, p. 153. 

2 Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 639. 

8 Ibid., p. 643. 4 Records of the Past, vol. v., p. 80. 



186 Foundation Rites. 

of large stones enclosed its place and made its deposits 
secure." 1 The father of the gods would deliver him 
to his enemies, and take away the scepter and the 
throne from him who should treat them irreverently, 
or destroy them, but Ashur and Ishtar would receive 
the prayers of him who should put them in their former 
place and sacrifice a victim and pour a libation. 2 

The records of Nabonnedos describe the long search 
for the foundations of the ancient temple Eulmash of 
the goddess Ishtar. For more than three thousand 
years since the great Sargon, they had not been dis- 
covered. King Kurigalzu (about 1300 B. C.) had 
written : " The foundation of Eulmash I sought, but 
did not find it." Six centuries later Esarhaddon had 
searched for it in vain. After him Nebuchadnezzar's 
armies had failed to find it. For three years Nabon- 
nedos followed, searching right and left in the tracks 
of Nebuchadnezzar without success. Prompted by the 
moon-god, Sin, he tried in another place, when he 
came upon the inscription of King Shagarakti-Buriash 
(1350 B. C), which tells that he had laid a new foun- 
dation exactly upon the old one of King Zabu (about 
2300 B. C.) The exact outline of the old shrine was 
preserved, the foundations relaid, and the temple re- 
stored so that " it did not deviate an inch to the out- 
side or the inside/' 3 

The gods Bel and Shamash and Ninna are implored 
to tear up the foundation, and exterminate the seed, of 
him who removes or disturbs the diorite door-socket of 

1 Records of the Past, vol. i., p. 31. 

2 Ibid., vol. i.,pp. 32,54, 56. 

3 The TJireshold Covenant, pp. 153, 154. 



Pillars and Sites. 187 

the temple of Eknr at Nippur, of the period of Sargon 
I., 3800 B. O. 1 The foundations of his kingdom 
should be shaken, who neglected the works of his an- 
cestors. "Want and famine, sickness and distress, 
should prevail throughout his land. 2 

The same reverence for the primal foundation of a 
temple is discovered in the records of ancient Egypt. 
The site on which it is built is generally holy ground. 3 
Tahutmes III., the greatest w T arrior-king of Egyptian 
history, 4 rebuilt the temple of Koptos on deep foun- 
dations which lasted through all successive rebuildings 
down to Eoman times. Its pillars of red granite " were 
probably re-used, " says Professor Petrie, " in the later 
temples, as they remained accessible in Christian times, 
and were removed from the ruins to build into a Coptic 
church, of which little remains now but these pillars. 5 
The great temple at Deir el Bahri, of Queen Hat- 
shepsut's construction, is so called because a Coptic con- 
vent or Deir was built in its ruins in Christian times. 6 

In India old foundations were sought for new temples. 
A famous temple in Upper India supposed to have been 
built about the commencement of the fourteenth cen- 
tury is upon the site of one built nine hundred years 
earlier, and that, in turn, was upon the site of one 
erected by King Asoka two centuries and a half be- 
fore the Christian era. 7 

1 The Chicago Tribune, June 4, 1893. 

2 Records of the Past, vol. vii., p. 20. 
8 The Threshold Covenant, p. 155. 

4 Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers, p. 199. 

5 History of Egypt, vol. ii., p. 128. 

6 Ibid., p. 81. 7 The Threshold Covenant, p. 156. 



1 88 Foundation Rites. 

Mohammedan conquerors built their mosques on 
the site of Hindu temples, and it was said that the 
building of a mosque implied the destruction of a temple. ' 
A mosque erected by the Emperor Altamash, A. D. 1232, 
is thought to have been built on the foundation of a 
temple of the sun, built for Kajah Pasupati about A. D. 
300. 2 

The capital of an emperor of China was removed from 
north of the Ho to the south of it because he had learned 
that the original foundation was attempted to be laid 
there by his ancestor, seventeen reigns before him. The 
removal of the capital would bring the blessings of his 
ancestor upon his descendants. 3 The Book of Records, 
the Shu King, mentions Tai Shan, the Great Mount, as 
the site of the great Emperor Shun's altar of sacrifice 
to Heaven, 2254 B. C. On this holy mountain every 
sect has its temples and idols, and it is the great rendez- 
vous for worshipers. 4 

When Pericles began his building of the new Propy- 
laca on the Acropolis, the plan of the architect was 
modified, as Dr. Dorpfield thinks, because it involved 
the destruction of shrines on an earlier foundation which 
might not be moved. 5 

The mosques of Omar and Al-Aksa occupy the very site 
of the temple of Solomon on Mount Moriah, 6 where the 
Ark of the Covenant is supposed to have rested after 
its return from Philistia, 7 and where David erected an 
altar to the Lord after the staying of the pestilence 

1 The Threshold Covenant, p. 157. 2 Ibid., p. 157. 

8 Ibid., p. 158. 4 Ibid., p. 158. 5 Ibid., p. 159. 

6 Correspondent Chicago Record, July, 4. 1899. 

7 II. Samuel vi. 1-19. 



Pillars and Sites. 189 

from Israel, 1 and where Abraham offered a sacrifice to 
God on an altar which he had built for the sacrifice of 
his son. 2 

" I will make Samaria," says the Prophet Micah, " as 
a heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard ; and 
I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and 
I will discover the foundations thereof." 3 Uncovering 
the foundations was the crowning disgrace threatened 
as a penalty for their idolatry. Habakkuk exclaims : 
fC Thou didst march through the land in indignation, 
thou didst thrash the heathen in anger. . . . Thou 
woundedst the head of the house of the wicked, by dis- 
covering the foundation unto the neck." 4 

" The Mecca of Japanese Shinto is at Ise, where the 
temples have had from time immemorial only one 
foundation. The buildings are renewed every twenty 
years on the same spot. For many centuries it has been 
the custom to rebuild Buddhist temples on the same 
foundation when destroyed by fire, or when captured 
from Shintoist to Buddhist ownership." 5 

The sacredness of the threshold among some oriental 
people was so great that the touch of the foot upon 
them was a grievous offense. It was the altar at which 
sacred covenants were made as Jacob and Laban cove- 
nanted at Galeed and Mizpah. 6 Marco Polo records 
that when the Kublai-Khan held a festival in his court, 
at all the doors there stood two gigantic fellows with 
cudgels, to see that none touched the thresholds, which, 

1 II. Samuel xxiv. 15-25. 2 Genesis xxii. 1-13. 

3 Micah i. 6. * Habakkuk iii. 12, 13. 

6 The Threshold Covenant, p. 323, letter to the author by 
Rev. Dr. "William Elliot Griffis. 6 Genesis xxxi. 44-49. 



190 Foundation Rites. 

if any one touched, his garments were taken away from 
him, and could only be redeemed by his receiving so 
many blows as it should be determined he merited. 1 

When it became necessary to remove au ancient shrine 
from its primitive foundation, a portion of the founda- 
tion itself, or the pillars of the structure, it was deemed 
highly important, should be carried to the new site. 
Thorolf of Norway had charge of the temple of Thor 
in Mostur. When he removed to Iceland in A. D. 833, 
he took with him the temple posts and furniture and the 
earth on which the altar had stood When he landed in 
Iceland he built a new temple of Thor and placed the 
altar on the foundation which he had brought from the 
shrine at his former home. A thousand years later the 
foundation site of this second temple was still pointed 
out. 2 In the same century Ingolf fled from the tyranny 
of Harald of Norway to Iceland, and carried with him 
the two wooden columns of his temple, which were 
carved with runic inscriptions and ornamented with 
images of Odinic divinities. On approaching the coast 
of Iceland, these sacred pillars were thrown into the sea, 
with the intent of taking up their residence where they 
drifted ashore, according to ancient tradition, but they 
drifted out of sight, leaving them to select a location 
without the guide of the sacred pillars. Three years 
later the ancient columns were discovered in a remark- 
ably sterile place, but nevertheless, the settlement was 
moved there, although the earlier location was more 
fertile and attractive. 3 

1 Voyages of Marco Polo, chapter xvi. 

2 TJie Threshold Covenant, p. 160. 

8 Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 286. 



Pillars and Sites. 191 

One of the tales that Marco Polo tells of the city of 
Sarmacand is, that Zagatai, the brother of the Great 
Khan, who once governed that country, became a Chris- 
tian, and built a church in honor of John the Baptist, 
with such cunning that the whole roof thereof was sup- 
ported by one pillar in the midst, under which was set 
a square stone, which, by favor of their Lord, was taken 
from a building of the Saracens. The son and successor 
of Zagatai, being an apostate from the religion of his 
father, the Saracens obtained from him a decree that 
the Christians should restore the stone which was the 
foundation and support of their church. All ransom 
for it was refused by the Saracens. " Whereupon the 
pillar was lifted up, that the Saracens might take away 
their stone." 1 

When the temple of Jupiter was rebuilt at Rome un- 
der Vespasian, the soothsayers advised that the ruins 
of the former shrine must be removed to the marshes 
and the temple raised on the old foundation, as the 
gods would not permit a change of the ancient form. 2 

In Montaigne's visit to Pisa, he went to see the ca- 
thedral on the site of which formerly stood a palace of the 
Emperor Hadrian. " This church," says he, " is adorned 
with a variety of spoils of Greece and Egypt, and is it- 
self almost entirely constructed out of the ruins of the 
ancient edifice which preceded it. Every here and 
there you see inscriptions, some upside down, others 
half -broken off and defaced ; and there are a few in un- 
known characters, said to be the ancient Etruscan." 8 

1 Voyages of Marco Polo, chap. xi. 

2 Tacitus' 1 History, book iv. chap. 53. 

8 The Works of Montaigne, William Hazlitt's translation, 
p. 639. 



192 Foundation Rites. 

Many mounds in England now crowned by churches 
are conjectured to have been old Celtic temples. 1 Saint 
Wentceslas, Prince of Bohemia, erected, in the tenth 
century, at Prague, a church to Swante Vit, the Chris- 
tian St. Vitus, on the site of a temple which he had 
destroyed, of the solar-god, Swanto Wit, and when An- 
cona fell into the hands of the Christian host under 
Waldemar I., on St. Vitus' Day, he at once destroyed 
the temple of the solar god and erected on its ruins a 
church to Swante Vit. 2 

In speaking of Southern Italy, Pastor Trede of the 
Evangelical Church at Naples, says : " Nearly all the 
oldest church structures originated in one of the follow- 
ing ways : either they made use of all sorts of temple 
materials, and especially pillars, or they were built upon 
the same foundation which once bore a temple, or the 
temples were transformed into Christian churches. 
That is, pagan materials served to make the new Chris- 
tian structure." 3 Pillars from what was once the 
temple of Apollo form part of the church of St. Eesti- 
tuta in Naples, and pillars from the temple of Poseidon 
are seen in the pilasters of the cathedral in the same 
place. The Lombards used in their churches in Sa- 
lermo, Capua, and Benevento, antique columns, the sup- 
ply of which was not exhausted for five hundred years. 
Eobert Guiscard brought the ancient columns for his 
cathedral at Salermo from Paastum, and in the atrium 
are still to be seen the stolen columns of the proud Nor- 
man. From Paestum came columns for the cathedral 

1 The Science of Fairy Tales, p. 231, note. 

2 The Buddhist Praying Wheel, pp. 293, 294. 
8 The Open Court, vol. xiii., p. 325. 



Pillars and Sites. 193 

of Amalfi. Granite columns from the ruins of Locri 
adorn the cathedral of Gerace. 1 

The oldest church built within the walls of Naples, in 
the sixth century, stood upon the ruins of a temple of 
Artemis, and was dedicated, to the Madonna. "The 
latter took the place/' says Pastor Trede, "of the former 
and assumed all of her former functions. In the an- 
cient campanile of this church, built of brick, one may 
still see all manner of fragments of that temple. To 
this day in that church women ask of the Madonna 
precisely what was once asked of Artemis in the same 
place." Where once a temple of Venus Eupleua, the 
divinity that protected harbors and navigation, stood 
on the slope of Posilipo, near Naples, stands a church 
of the Madonna, and " to the present hour in the eyes 
of fishermen the Madonna performs the same offices as 
did once Dame Venus, and gifts are brought to her 
altar as of old." 2 Where the temple of Antinous, the 
favorite of the Emperor Hadrian, once stood, in Naples, 
was built, in early Christian times, the church of St. 
John the Baptist. The church of St. Cesareo in Ter- 
racina stands upon the site of a temple of Augustus. 
In Messina, one of St. Gregory is upon the site of a 
temple of Jupiter. The temple of St. Gerlando in 
Girgenti succeeded that of Zeus. The cathedral of 
Saint Proculus in Pozzuoli stands on the foundation of 
a temple of Augustus. 3 

Near Croton on the Gulf of Tarentum stood the 
temple of Hera Lucina, a religious center for all the 
Hellenic colonies of the coast. Forty-eight marble col- 
umns enclosed this sanctuary, "which stood in the 

1 The Open Court, vol. xiii., p. 326. 2 Ibid., p. 328. 3 Ibid. 
*3 



194 Foundation Rites. 

midst of a murmuring fir grove and guarded immense 
treasures." When this temple came into the possession 
of the Romans its name was changed to Juno Lucina. 
In the fifth century it fell into the hands of Christians 
and was changed into a church and " the divinity 
whose image was displayed there was now called Mary, 
but in her function and influence she was all that Juno 
had been/' and processions went thither, vows were 
performed, and women appealed in the important con- 
cerns of life, as before, to Mary- Juno-Hera. 1 The 
temple of Monte St. G-iugliano, on Mount Eryx, in 
Sicily, occupies the same height where once was the 
temple sanctuary of Aphrodite, famous among the Greeks 
and Eomans. 2 

1 The Open Court, vol. xiii., p. 329. 

2 Ibid., p. 330. 



Completion and Christening. 195 



CHAPTER XV. 

COMPLETION AND CHRISTENING. 

If the primitive significance of the sacrificial rites in 
laying the foundations of a building was to provide the 
new structure with a life, or soul, or guardian deity, 
how shall the kindred ceremonies connected with its 
completion be accounted for ? Was the life provided 
for the foundation insufficient for the guardianship of 
the finished work ? Again, if in the early animistic 
belief, stakes, stones and all things were already 
possessed of a living principle, why should the life of 
man or beast be taken to supply them with one ? While 
a satisfactory solution of all the problems suggested to 
the mind in the study of savage and semi-savage cus- 
toms may not be reached, it may be remembered that 
the idea of propitiation is always more or less connected 
with these sacrifices, and that increased confidence in 
the efficacy of them accompanies their frequent repeti- 
tion. Mr. Allen remarks : " Frequent reiteration of 
sacrifices seems necessary, also, in order to keep up the 
sanctity of images and sacred rites, to put, as it were, 
a new soul into them." ' Sometimes the victim would 
be regarded as a sacrifice to the deity in whose honor 
the temple was erected, or as the means of securing 
additional favors from him. In his great strait, when 

1 Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 268. 



196 Foundation Rites. 

surrounded by the " Hittite herdsman-horde/' Rameses, 
according to the Poem of Pen-ta-ur, cries out to Father 

Amnion, 

" is it nought 
That to thee I dedicated noble monuments, and filled 
Thy temples with the prisoners of war ? 
That for thee a thousand years shall stand the shrines 
I dared to build ? 

That to thee ten thousand oxen for sacrifice I fell ? " 1 

In some cases, as Mr. Speth observes, the offerings 
might be for the purpose of driving away " the hurtful 
demons of the locality." 2 When the demons and the 
gods were once in a mighty conflict, according to a 
Brahman legend, and the demons had turned the earth 
into an iron citadel, the air into a silver fortress, and 
the sky into a fort of gold, the gods resolved to build 
other worlds, and palaces for sacrifices, when the first 
offering drove the demons out of the earth, the second 
sacrifice routed them from the air, and the third from 
the sky. 3 

Elaborate ceremonies in dedicating public edifices 
have been common to most pagan as well as Christian 
nations. The impressive rites of modern times surely 
had their origin in the barbarous sacrifices of early 
races. Many legends indicate that the architect him- 
self, as in foundation rites, has been the victim. 
Sometimes it has been one of the builder's family whose 
blood has sanctified the completed structure. There 

1 Notes for the Nile, H. D. Rawnsley, p. 273. 

2 Builders'' Rites, p. 3. 

8 Hindu Literature, Elizabeth A. Reed, p. 79. 



Completion and Christening. 197 

is an old tradition that to build or repair a house will 
be fatal to some member of the family, usually the one 
who advised or urged it most strenuously, and this may 
be but a lingering memory of the sacrifice at comple- 
tion. In a district of Normandy, a newly-built 
house must be purified by the slaughter of a cock, the 
blood of which must be shed upon the threshold, or 
the tenant was sure to die within the year. This is 
also said to be an Arabic custom, adopted by the 
Turks. 1 It is told of the Cathedral of St. Basil, in the 
great square outside the walls of Moscow, that the 
architect, on completion of his work, was put to death 
by command of the authorities. True, the reason 
assigned is that no other city might make use of 
talents to construct similar edifices, but the same story 
is current of other churches in Russia and elsewhere, 
and " who knows," asks Mr. Speth, <e but that the 
architect may really in some cases have been the chosen 
victim, as eminently best qualified to undertake the 
role of guardian spirit to his own creation ? " 2 

Great aversion is felt in some places to be the first 
to enter a new house, or go over a newly-built bridge. 
It is thought to be unlucky, and sometimes to occasion 
death. A story illustrating this is told by a clerical 
writer in Gorrihill which happened in his own parish 
in Yorkshire. A week before a newly-built church 
was to be consecrated, a blacksmith's wife who had 
borne her husband seven girls, presented him with his 
first boy. The father could not be persuaded to have 
the lad christened in the new font of the new church. 

1 Builders' Rites, p. 34. 2 Ibid. 



198 Foundation Rites. 

In reply to the parson's entreaty to wait till the new- 
building was consecrated, shuffling with his feet and 
hitching his shoulders, he says : " Please, sir, folks say 
that t' fust child as is baptized i' a new church is bound 
to dee (die). The old un (the devil) claims it. Naw, 
sir, Fve seven little lasses, and but one lad. If this 
were a lass again, twouldn't 'a' mattered ; but as it's a 
lad — well, sir, I won't risk it." 1 

That the first one buried in a new cemetery becomes 
the property of the Evil One, is an old belief that prob- 
ably originated in the early times when the first one 
buried was the victim of the completion sacrifice. It 
was an ancient Teutonic custom to bury a living horse 
in a churchyard before a human corpse was placed in 
it, and the memory of it survives in the saying that the 
apparition of a horse in the graveyard betokens death. 2 
As the old Teuton sometimes killed horses and buried 
them under the corner-stone of his building to bring 
good luck, so when the building was completed, for 
the same purpose, he placed the horse's head above 
the stable door, or on the weather-vane of his 
barn. 3 

The old heathen gods were reputed to be great 
builders, and their reputation still lingers in the 
mythical stories of marvelous works wrought by leagues 
with the infernal powers. Buildings are erected mag- 
ically but the devil is sure to claim his reward, usually 
the one first making use of the structure. He builds 
a church for the soul of the first one to enter it, or a 

1 On Kirk-Grims, Cornhill Magazine, February, 1887. 

52 Ibid. ; Grimm, 844, 1142. 

3 Magfc of the Horseshoe, pp. 83, 85. 



Completion and Christening. 199 

bridge for the first living thing that passes over it. 
The satanic architect is sometimes cheated out of his 
pay, for the first one sent into the church, or over the 
bridge, may be a wolf, or the premature crowing of the 
cock may frighten the builder away before the finish- 
ing touches are added and his reward is forfeit. The 
places of the old gods and giants have been usurped in 
these myths by the devil and his evil spirits ; for, these 
are always but the antecedent or contemporary rival 
gods of other religions systems, who always retain 
somewhat of their former characteristics. These tales 
all point to primitive sacrificial rites on completion of 
the work. Every " Devil's Bridge " has some story 
connected with it of a sacrifice, and an animal is fre- 
quently substituted for the human victim. At the 
bridge at Pont-la-Ville the devil demanded eighteen 
lives, according to popular tradition, but only received 
"six mice, six rats and six cats," which were first 
driven across it in place of human beings. He is said 
to have bridged the Danube at Eatisbon for the first 
three who crossed it, and only received a dog, a cock 
and a hen, which he quickly destroyed in his rage. 1 

On taking possession of a new house the chiefs of the 
Kayans in Borneo sacrificed human beings. In 1847 
a Malay slave girl was purchased for a sacrifice on an 
occasion of this kind, and her blood was sprinkled upon 
the pillars and under the house, and her body was 
thrown into the river. 2 With the blood of more than 
twelve thousand captives Montezuma consecrated a 
new sacrificial stone on the summit of a Mexican tem- 

1 Demonology and Devil Lore, vol. i., p. 205. 

2 Primitive Culture, vol. ii. , p. 382. 



200 Foundation Rites. 

ple. x Spanish historians charge that 72,344 victims 
were sacrificed at the dedication by Ahuitzotl of the 
great temple to the national war-god of the Mexicans in 
1487, and that while successive relays of the priests 
became weary with striking, the people did not tire of 
the frightful butchery. It is probable the number is 
greatly exaggerated by the mendacious historian, but of 
the character of the rite there is abundant testimony. 
When Juan de Grijalva was disembarking on the coast, 
where Vera Cruz now stands, in 1518, numerous 
prisoners were being sacrificed in honor of the dedica- 
tion of the temple of Ooatlan. 2 

The ceremonies in laying the foundations of a house 
by the aborigines of New Mexico has already been 
spoken of, and their use of feathers in connection with 
the corner-stone. Another sacred rite takes place when 
the house is completed. The builder prepares four 
feathers and ties them to a short piece of willow, the 
end of which is inserted over one of the central roof 
beams. The feathers are renewed every year at the 
feast of Soyalyina, which is celebrated in December, 
when the sun begins to return northward. A part of 
the dedication ceremony consists in "feeding the 
house/' making an offering to the chief divinity, Mas- 
sauwu, by placing fragments of food among the rafters, 
and, at the same time, beseeching him not to hasten 
the departure of any one of the family to the under 
world. 3 A somewhat similar use of feathers prevails 
among the Mokis. From the center of the ceiling of 
the house hangs a feather tied to a cotton string. This 

1 Pre-Historic America, p. 297. 2 Ibid., p. 298. 

8 The American Antiquarian, vol. xviii., p. 19. 






Completion and Christening. 201 

is the soul of the house and the sign of its dedication ; 
no house is without one. 1 

In China certain rites are performed by the Taoist 
priests, upon the completion of a new pigsty, before 
the animals are admitted to the new quarters. An altar 
is erected to the genii of pigsties and the walls are dec- 
orated with strips of red paper bearing Chinese char- 
acters, signifying, " Let the enemies of horses, cows, 
sheep, fowls, dogs, and pigs be appeased." 2 

It is said to be an old custom which came into use 
in the Middle Ages for artisans, on completion of a 
building, to place upon it a branch of a tree. Its origin 
is sometimes explained as dating from the time when a 
bush was a common sign for a tavern, and when it was 
raised upon the finished work the employer must pay 
for the drinks. 3 It more probably had an earlier 
meaning. The ancient Komans had a custom of adorn- 
ing the sheepfold with leaves and green branches and 
covering the door with garlands at the feast celebrated 
at the end of April for the preservation of the flocks. 
A branch of the mountain-ash in the hands of a chris- 
tened man brought wo to the witch who came in contact 
with it. Branches of this tree were hung over stables 
to protect from witches and fairies. 4 The blessings of 
the tree-spirit would fall upon the new house if conse- 
crated with its boughs. 5 

The present custom of christening ships is a relic of 

1 The Moki Snake Dance, Walter Hough, p. 38. 

2 Magic of the Horseshoe, p. 297. 

3 The New York Times, October 13, 1899. 

4 Magic of the Horseshoe, p. 296. 

5 The Golden Bough, vol. i., p. 74. 



202 Foundation Rites. 

the ancient libation when they were launched. Break- 
ing the bottle of wine over the bow is a pale survival of 
a once bloody rite. Few who witness the pretty cere- 
monies of modern times realize the former significance 
of similar events. There is but little doubt that upon 
such occasions among primitive people human sacrifice 
was a nearly universal custom. " The neck of the 
victim was broken across the prow and his blood 
besprinkled the sides, while his soul entered the new 
home provided for it to insure its safety amid storm 
and tempest." 1 Of the original conception of the rite 
nothing remains. Captain Cook found the South Sea 
Islanders christening their war canoes with blood. 2 
When the Norwegian Vikings launched a ship they 
bound human victims to the round logs over which the 
vessel was run down into the sea, so that the ship was 
sprinkled with the blood of them. 3 The march of 
civilization substituted domestic animals for human 
victims, and these in turn gave way to images of animals 
and substitutes for blood. A description of the launch- 
ing of a caique on the waters of the Bosphorus is quoted 
from the London Daily Telegraph of September 25, 1893, 
when, according to the customs of the country, a sheep 
was sacrificed in honor of the occasion. 4 Mr. William 
Simpson gives an account taken from a " Narrative of 
a Ten Years' Eesidence at Tripoli," of the launching of 
one of the Bey of Tripoli's cruisers in 1784 : " Just at 
the moment of its quitting the stocks, a black slave of 
the Bey's was led forward and fastened to the prow of 

1 Builders' Rites, p. 22. 

2 Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 263. 

3 Ibid., p. 263. 4 Builders' Rites, p. 48. 



Completion and Christening. 203 

the vessel to influence a happy reception in the ocean. 
Some embarrassment happened at the time of its going 
off, and Mustaphar (the minister) not having seen the 
black attached, said it was no wonder the vessel did not 
go easily off the stocks, for they had neglected to bind 
a black on board and send off with it. A beautiful 
lamb fitted for the purpose, washed white as snow and 
decorated with flowers and ribbons, stood on the deck, 
which, at the instant the vessel plunged into the water, 
received the fatal knife, being devoutly offered as a 
sacrifice to Mahomet for the future prosperity of the 
cruiser." 1 The Phoenicians carried images of gods in 
the prow of their ships to whom the sacrifices were 
made, and figure-heads similar to idols were carved on 
Polynesian war canoes. 2 

Another ancient custom, on the completion of a ship, 
was to deck it with garlands and flowers, when it was 
launched into the sea with loud acclamations and ex- 
pressions of joy. It was purified by a priest with a 
lighted torch, an egg, and brimstone, and was conse- 
crated to the god whose image it carried. In Modern 
Greece when a ship is launched, the bow is decorated 
with flowers, and the captain takes a jar of wine, which 
he raises to his lips, and pours upon the deck. 3 The 
Japanese hang a pasteboard cage full of birds over the 
prow of the ship, and when the vessel is afloat, the 
cage opens, the birds fly away, and the christened 
ship begins her career as a thing of life. 4 A niece 

1 Builders' Rites, p. 48. 

2 TJie Evolution of the Idea of God, pp. 263, 264. 

3 Credulities Past and Present, p. 65. 

i The Christian Register, Boston, Mass., August, 1898, 



204 Foundation Rites. 

of the builder christened the Nathaniel Palmer 
with pinks when it was launched at Bath, Maine, in 
1898. 1 

The ancient Romans sacrificed to Neptune when about 
to embark on a voyage, and let fly a dove as an omen of 
safe return. 2 Odysseus sacrificed "thighs of bulls" to 
Posseidon for favorable winds. 3 iEneas sacrificed a 
white lamb to the favorable winds, a black lamb to the 
hostile winds, and a bull to Neptune when he sailed for 
Crete. 4 ' Assyrians sacrificed to the fish-god Ilea when 
about to go upon the ocean. 6 Iphigenia was offered at 
Aulus to appease the angry waves, 6 and Jonah was 
thrown overboard to appease the wrath of Heaven. 1 
The Indian deposited tobacco on the rocks that the 
spirit of the swift waters might not upset his canoe, and 
in the storm he threw overboard his dog to calm the 
troubled sea. 8 Every part of the vessel which carries 
produce to and from Siberia is blessed by the priest 
before it leaves the port. Priests of Yarmouth for- 
merly blessed the fishing vessels annually. When 
Henry III. was at war with France he visited the shrines 
of many saints to secure their influence against storms 
before embarking in his fleet. Five pounds the Bishop 
of Bangor was paid for his blessing upon the King's 
ship at Southampton. 9 



The New York Times, December 29, 1898. 

Credulities Past and Present, p. 65. 

The Odyssey, iii., 176. 4 TJie Mneid, iii., 181. 

Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria, Maspero, p. 342. 

Iphigenia in Aulis, Euripides. 

Jonah i. 15. 

Myths of the New World, p. 336. 

Credidities Past and Present, pp. 65, 66. 






Completion and Christening. 205 

Blood propitiates the gods at the beginning of great 
undertakings. Captives were sacrificed before the 
battle of Salamis. 1 Obedient to the command of the 
oracle, the daughters of Antipcenus killed themselves 
that the Orchomenians might fall before Hercules 
and the Thebans. 2 Sheep were sacrificed at the com- 
mencement of the building of the railroad between 
Jaffa and Jerusalem, and at the foundation of the 
Turkish building at the Columbian Exposition in 
Chicago. 3 

Blood symbolizes welcome and hospitality. When 
the bride enters the house of the bridegroom a sheep 
is killed by the Mohammedan Copts and the bride 
steps over the blood which flows on the threshold. 4 In 
1882, when the new Khedive of Egypt approached the 
entrance of his palace, blood of buffaloes sacrificed was 
made to splash across the pathway so that the horses* 
hoofs and wheels of the carriage passed through it. 5 
General Grant was welcomed at Assioot on the Upper 
Nile by the sacrifice of a bullock at the steamer land- 
ing, and he passed over the blood of a sacrificed sheep 
at the entrance of the house of the vice-consul. A 
sheep must be killed and its blood flow on the deck or 
side of the dahabiyeh on the Nile to secure it good 
fortune. 6 The new king is welcomed by the slaying of 
two men in Central Africa. The death of a fowl wel- 
comes strangers in Liberia. 7 

1 Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 267. 

2 Pausanias, ix., xvii. 3 The Threshold Covenant, p. 57. 
4 The Wedding Day in All Countries, E. J. Wood, vol. i., 

p. 77. 5 The Threshold Covenant, p. 7. 

6 The TJireshold Covenant, p. 9. 7 Ibid., p. 9. 



206 Foundation Rites. 

To return to the consecration of ships. We find in 
an old Accadian tablet these lines of a hymn in praise 
of a sacred ship : 

" O ship, before thee may plenty go ! 
O ship, behind thee may pleasure go ! 
In thine heart may heart-gladness make thee gay ! " 

In another column of the tablet is a set of directions 
for the investiture and consecration of a new image of 
the god apparently designed for the protection of the 
ship. Ceremonies are prescribed for the workmen 
and artists. A great tablet in the garden shall be set 
up. " At sunrise on the bank of the river, a grassy 
place, pure water draw ; three knots for Ea, Shamash, 
and Merodach, thou shalt tie ; dates,, wheaten meal 
for sprinkling, honey, butter thou shalt place ; make 
splendid, rich thine offering. Three libations to Bel, 
Shamash and Merodach pour." One libation to the 
new image of the god pour. Pour spirits and set in 
abundance. Into the great basin put cedar, cypress, 
tamarisk, herbs and a palm sapling with honey, butter, 
oil. Lift up the lustral water set for the gods, and 
while lifting it up and down, and dipping the hands 
therein, repeat : 

" To-day the god is made, the bright azkar is finished, 
The god shines forth in all the lands, 
With splendor exalted, with lordship adorned in apparel 

perfect ; 
With majesty he is begirt, his form shoots forth terror ; 
The great sword flashes, the azkar brightly shines forth ; 
In heaven he is made, on earth he is made." 

The god Gushkin-banda has made the image, for 



Completion and Christening. 207 

he created the architect. The mouth of the image 
mystically opened partakes of the honey and butter 
prepared for him. Through the instrumentality of 
the workmen who fashioned it, the divine being rep- 
resented by the statue is brought into connection 
with it by the agency of the great god who created it. 1 

In the earliest historical times, among the Baby- 
lonians, there was a custom of erecting statues of their 
kings, which, after being dedicated with elaborate cere- 
monies, were placed in the temples as offerings to the 
gods. Some idea of the importance of the rite is 
gained from an inscription of Gudea, one of the early 
kings. It was upon the occasion of the christening of 
a colossal diorite statue of the king himself. For 
seven days all manual labor was interrupted in Lagash. 
Masters and slaves shared in the festivities. The 
temple of Nin-girsu, the great warrior of Bel, the god 
who " changed darkness into light," was sanctified by 
purification rites, and the statue was formally presented 
to him amidst sacrifices and offerings of rich gifts. 2 

So an image of gold whose height was threescore 
cubits and breadth thereof six cubits, 3 of King Nebu- 
chadnezzar, was set up in the plain of Dura, in the prov- 
ince of Babylon, long after the days of Gudea, and 
the " princes, the governors, and the captains, the 
judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and 
all the rulers of the provinces " were gathered together 
to the dedication of the king's statue, and as they 

1 Glimpses of Babylonian Religion. By C. J. Ball, in Pro- 
ceedings Society of Biblical Archeology, xiv., part 4. 

2 Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 669. 

3 Daniel iii. 1. 



2o8 Foundation Rites. 

stood before it, at the sound of all manner of musical 
instruments, all fell down and worshiped save the re- 
bellious Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. 1 

We read that at the dedication of the wall of Jeru- 
salem the Levites were sought out of all their places 
and brought to the city " to keep the dedication with 
gladness, both with thanksgivings, and with singing, 
with cymbals, psalteries and harps " and the priests and 
Levites purified themselves and " purified the people 
and the gates and the wall," and they offered great 
sacrifices and rejoiced " so that the joy of Jerusalem 
was heard even afar off." 2 

When Solomon had finished the work on the temple 
and moved into it all the things which his father had 
dedicated, he assembled the elders of Israel, and the 
priests took up the ark of Jahveh, who, "as men's 
opinion was," was to have his "habitation in this newly 
built and consecrated place," 3 and the king and con- 
gregation of Israel went before " sacrificing sheep and 
oxen that could not be told nor numbered for multi- 
tude." * Persons from a great distance perceived the 
divine presence from the mingled odors of the incense and 
the blood of the victims. 6 When the priests had placed 
the ark between the two cherubim, in the midst of the 
cloud which darkened the place, " the visible image 
and glorious appearance" of the Deity who had "glad- 
ly pitched his tabernacle therein " was manifested to 
all. 6 Fourteen days the festivities continued, " and 

1 Daniel iii. 1-12. 2 Nehemiah xii. 27, 43. 

3 Antiquity of the Jews, Josephus, chap. iv. 

4 I. Kings viii. 63. 

5 Antiquity of the Jews, chap. iv. 6 Ibid. 






Completion and Christening. 209 

Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he 
offered unto the Lord, two and twenty thousand oxen, 
and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the 
king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house 
of the Lord." * The king was solemnly assured in a 
dream of the acceptance of the temple as a dwelling 
place by him who " would always abide in it/' 2 whose 
guardianship was over all in the dominions of Solomon 
who turned towards it in prayer and supplication wher- 
ever they were, and would shield them from their 
enemies, and " whatsoever plague, whatsoever sick- 
ness ", or "if there be in the land famine, if there be 
pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be 
caterpillar." 3 

With joyous festivities the children of the captivity 
consecrated the temple completed at last, which Cyrus 
had been appointed to build, and the record of sacri- 
fices chronicled by the ancient historians of the Jews 
includes a hundred bullocks, two hundred rams, four 
hundred lambs and twelve he-goats for a sin offering for 
all Israel. 4 

An interesting old legend connects a fisherman Edric 
and St. Peter with the original founding of Westmin- 
ster Abbey on the Isle of Thorney. It was on a Sunday 
night, the eve of the day fixed by Mellitus, Bishop of 
London, for the consecration of the original monastery 
of the isle, that Edric was casting his nets from the 
shore into the Thames, when a bright light on the op- 
posite side of the river attracted his attention. He 
crossed the river and found a venerable personage 

1 I. Kings viii. 63. 2 Antiquity of the Jews, chap. iv. 

3 I. Kings viii. 37. 4 Ezra vi. 17. 

14 






210 Foundation Rites. 

dressed in foreign attire who requested to be ferried 
over the river. When his request had been complied with 
and the stranger was landed he proceeded at once to the 
church. On the way the air suddenly became bright 
with celestial splendor as the two springs of the island 
were touched with the staff of the stranger. The build- 
ing stood out clear without darkness or shadow and a 
host of angels were ascending and descending. There 
were sweet odors and flaming candles, and with solemn 
ceremonies the church was dedicated. The fisherman 
sat awestruck in his boat, and when the stranger returned 
to him and asked for food, had none to give him. 
" I am Peter, keeper of the keys of heaven," said he. 
" When Mellitus comes in the morning, tell him what 
you have seen, and show him the token that I, St. Peter, 
have consecrated my own church of St. Peter, West- 
minster, and have anticipated the Bishop of London. 
For yourself, go out into the river ; you will catch a 
plentiful supply of fish, whereof the larger part shall 
be salmon, on two conditions, that you never fish again 
on Sundays, and that you pay a tithe of them to the 
Abbey of Westminster." Bishop Mellitus arose in the 
morning to prepare the anointing oil and utensils for 
the dedication. When he arrived with the king at the 
appointed time Edric met them at the door with a sal- 
mon in his hand which he presented to the Bishop from 
St. Peter. He then pointed out to them the walls 
within and without moistened with holy water, the 
marks of the twelve crosses on the church, the letters 
of the Greek alphabet written twice over distinctly on 
the sand of the sacred island, the traces of the oil 
and droppings of the angelic candles, and the Bishop, 



Completion and Christening. 211 

convinced, returned from the church, satisfied the ded- 
ication had been properly done. 1 

It is said the early annals of Westminster record a 
suit at law between the Rector of Eotherhithe and the 
Convent of Westminster, to determine who was en- 
titled to the first haul of the fisherman according to 
the ruling of St. Peter. A monastic historian has at- 
tributed the growing scarcity of salmon to a divine 
judgment upon the fishermen for not complying with 
the request of St. Peter. Yet, as late as 1382, each 
year, a fisherman, as representative of Edric, took his 
place beside the prior, and brought in a salmon for St. 
Peter, which was carried in state through the middle 
of the refectory while the prior and whole fraternity 
rose as it passed to the high table, and the fisherman 
received ale and bread in return for the fish's tail. 2 

1 Credulities Past and Present, William Jones, p. 57. 

2 Ibid., p. 58, note. 



212 Foundation Rites. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

LANDMARKS AND BOUNDARIES. 

In early title deeds, a li stake and stones," figures con- 
spicuously as- the terminal point of many a boundary 
line, and the peculiar phraseology continues in use 
oftentimes in later conveyances long after the where- 
abouts of the original terminus is no longer discoverable ; 
as customs once of great significance still survive when 
the purposes for which they were instituted primarily 
have been forgotten. How few realize of what vast 
importance in the affairs of men were the remote an- 
cestors of " the stake and stones " ! In common belief, 
they were charged with a mission from which their 
degenerate successors have long since been relieved, 
for they were the guardian deities of the fields. The 
setting of a boundary stone was in fact the making of 
a god, or, at least, the habitation of one. A life must 
be -provided for it. It was consecrated with religious 
ceremonies and sacrificial rites. The blood of living 
victims must flow upon it, till, in the usual course of 
events, it came to be known that satisfactory substi- 
tutions could be made of images, oil and pigments. 
As life itself grew precious, the value of its similitudes 
increased. 

The god Nin-girsu was not only the patron of the 
ancient capital of Lagash, but he also, says Professor 



Landmarks and Boundaries. 213 

Jastrow, " presided over the agricultural prosperity of 
the district/' In this role one of the names by which 
he was known was Shul-gur, the god of the corn 
heaps. " Each field had its protecting spirit." 1 There 
were demons "supposed to inhabit the fields, and to 
whom the ground is supposed to belong." When pos- 
session was taken of the field, the spirits inhabiting it 
had to be propitiated. The owner called, upon the 
demons to range themselves upon his side. Boundary 
stones known as Kudurru were set up on which the 
owner of the field detailed his right to possession, 
whether through purchase or gift. The inscription 
closed with an appeal to various gods to strike with 
their curses any intruder upon the owner's rights. 
The stones were also embellished with serpents, scor- 
pions, unicorns and other representations of animal 
forms, which might, perhaps, symbolize the evil spirits, 
the sight of which would act as an effectual warning 
to them against interference with the rights of the 
owner. 2 

Sacrificial rites were performed when the Babylonian 
conquerors set up the boundaries of newly-subjugated 
territories. Ashurnasirapli (885-860 B. C.) set up a 
stele at the mountains of Ammanus and sacrificed to 
the gods. 3 

An inscribed stone of King Merodach Baladan (1340 
B. C.) found on the western side of the Tigris by George 
Smith, records the grant of ninety acres of land by the 
King to one of his officers. On the back of the stone 

1 Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 58. 

2 Ibid., p. 182. 

3 The Threshold Covenant, p. 184, 



214 Foundation Rites. 

is the carved representation of the deities invoked to 
protect the property, and to punish any one attempt- 
ing to injure the boundary stone, or remove it. All 
the gods "whose memorials are made known" on the 
tablet will make his home desolate and follow him with 
" unspeakable curse " who shall commit any sacrilege 
upon the sacred stone. 1 

The monument known as the Michaux stone of 
Paris, so called from the name of its discoverer who 
found it near the Tigris and brought it to France in 
1800, was set up to mark a field whose measurement 
it records, and its conveyance also. It is bordered 
with serpents and decorated with symbolical figures of 
gods and altars indicating its sacred character. Who- 
ever shall deny its validity, alter or remove it, all the 
gods whose names are inscribed thereon are invoked 
to " curse him with irrevocable malediction, and scat- 
ter his race even to the last days." 2 The tablet of 
Hankas in the British Museum describes the measure- 
ment and conveyance of a field lying on the bank of 
the river Besim. In the usual phraseology curses are 
invoked from all the gods upon those who shall ques- 
tion the title or disturb the boundary stone. 3 Some of 
the boundary stones of Babylonia exhibited in the 
British Museum are of a phallic character, and their 
upper parts are " unmistakable and even offensive," 
says Dr. Peters. 4 Images of the king were set up for 
marking boundaries. Such was the stele set up by 
Ashurnasirapli, marking the limit of his conquest. 

1 Records of the Past, vol. ix., pp. 29-36. 

2 Ibid., pp. 92-96. 

3 Ibid., vol. ix., pp. 103-105. * Nippur, vol. ii., p. 379, 



' Landmarks and Boundaries. 215 

The Egyptian King Usurtesen III. erected as boundary 
marks of his empire his own image that his sons might 
not only worship it but fight upon it. 1 

Heaps of stones aud pillars were used as landmarks 
by the ancient Hebrews. When Jacob and Laban 
had settled their differences and effected a reconcilia- 
tion a stone pillar was set up, and a heap of stones upon 
which they partook of a sacrificial feast, and each 
covenanted that he would not pass over the heap to 
harm the other. 2 

Moses and the people were commanded to set bounds 
about the sacred mountain of Sinai, and sanctify them, 
and the punishment was death to him who should go 
beyond the sacred boundaries. 3 " Remove not the 
ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set up," was 
one of the sacred proverbs. 4 The wicked princes of 
Judah " were like them that remove the bound," there- 
fore wrath should be poured u]3on them like water. 5 

When they passed over Jordan into the promised 
land, the command given them was " to set up great 
stones and plaster them with plaster," and build an 
altar, and sacrifice. A curse was pronounced upon 
him who should interfere with the landmark of his 
neighbor. 6 

When in the vision of the Prophet the Lord riding on 
a swift cloud comes into Egypt and the idols are moved 
at his presence, a pillar is set up at the border of the 
land for a sign and a witness, and an altar shall be 

1 The Threshold Covenant, p. 179. 

2 Genesis xxxi. 45-52. 3 Exodus xix. 12. 

4 Proverbs xxii. 28. 

5 Hosea v. 10, • Deuteronomy xxvii. 2-17. 



216 Foundation Rites. 

erected in the midst of the laud for u sacrifice and 
oblation." 1 

Hermes the son of Zeus was the god who protected 
thoroughfares. The Greeks erected statues of him as 
guide posts along the highways and at the gates. He 
punished those who refused to assist travelers who had 
lost their way. Athenian generals sacrificed to him on 
setting out on an expedition. Sacrificial animals were 
under his charge. He was also god of fertility and 
looked after the fruitfulness of the fields. 2 Sacred piles 
or heaps of stones represented the god, which were 
placed by the sides, or points of intersection of roads. 3 
The god was symbolized sometimes by phallic pillars, 4 
as in Cyllene. 6 The mountain on which Hermes found 
the tortoise of which he made the lyre formed the 
boundary between two districts of Greece. 6 

Proserpine and Demeter were earth goddesses and 
sacrifices were made to them in seasons of sowing and 
reaping. The channels called Eheti, which were " like 
rivers in their flow," in old times, according to Pausa- 
nias, were boundaries between the Eleusinians and 
Athenians, and were sacred to these goddesses, and only 
their priests could fish in their waters. 7 The Strymon, 
a boundary stream, was propitiated by the Magi, by the 
sacrifice of white horses, and when Xerxes approached 
the bridge which spanned it, by the Nine Ways of the 

1 Isaiah xix. 19. 

2 Smith's Classical Dictionary. 

8 Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 149. 

4 Myth, Ritual and Religion, vol. ii., p. 275. 

5 Pausanias, vi. , p. 26. 

e Ibid., viii., p. 17. Ibid., i., p. 38. 



Landmarks and Boundaries. 217 

Edonians, he buried alive nine sons and daughters of 
the inhabitants. 1 

Terminus was one of the oldest and most prized di- 
vinities of the Romans. 2 In his honor an annual festi- 
val was held every year on February 23, which was 
known as the Terminalia, 3 when sacrifices were offered at 
the boundaries of which he was the guardian and pro- 
tector. His worship is traced to Numa, the second of 
the kings, who is said to have ordered that every one 
should mark his landed property by stones consecrated 
to Jupiter, and that yearly sacrifices should be offered 
at these boundary stones. It has been conjectured that 
Jupiter himself was the god of boundaries, and that 
Terminus was a name applied to him when acting in 
that capacity. 4 The legend is that Terminus refused 
to give way to Jupiter when the temple of the latter 
was built at the Capitol and so the temple enclosed a 
chapel of Terminus also. " A favorable inference was 
drawn from his obstinacy," says Gibbon, " which was 
interpreted by the augurs as a sure presage that the 
boundaries of the Roman power would never recede." 5 
Later the power which yielded not to Jupiter gave way 
to Hadrian and the boundaries of the Empire were con- 
tracted. As St. Augustine said : " Hadrian king of 
men was seen to be feared more than the King of the 
gods." 6 

Gibbon says Terminus was represented, according to 

1 Herodotus, vii., p. 114. 

2 Mommsen's Rome, vol. i., p. 220. 3 Ibid., vol. i., p. 224. 

4 Smith's Classical Dictionary, article Terminus. 

5 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. i., p. 223. 

6 Ibid., vol. i., p. 233, Milman's note. 



218 Foundation Rites. 

the fashion of that age, by a large stone. 1 At the an- 
nual festival the owners of adjacent property crowned 
the stone pillar with garlands and on a rude altar made 
offerings of corn and wine and sacrificed a lamb or 
sucking pig. It is probable that the celebration of 
these rites is older than any of the historic kings. 
Were the sacrifices originally human ? Mr. Grant 
Allen says: "Boundaries, I believe, were originally 
put under the charge of local and artificial deities, by 
slaughtering a human victim at each turning point of 
the limits, and erecting a sacred stone on the spot 
where he died to preserve his memory. . . . Each such 
victim became forthwith a boundary god, a protecting 
and watching spirit, and was known thenceforth as a 
Hermes or a Terminus. " a 

The custom known as " beating the bounds," the 
popular expression for the annual perambulation of 
parishes in England by which the ancient boundaries 
were preserved, is in some respects like the old Eoman 
Terminalia, and is quite probably a survival of it. On 
Holy Thursday, or Ascension day, the clergyman of the 
parish, with the parochial officers and other parish- 
ioners, followed by the boys of the parish school, headed 
by their masters, used to go in procession to the differ- 
ent parish boundaries, which the boys struck with 
peeled willow wands carried in their hands. The boys 
were sometimes whipped at points on the circuit to 
make them remember, it was said. Bound-beating was 
kept up annually at Shrewsbury till the middle of the 
nineteenth century, at Ludlow till 1822. It is not con- 

1 The Decline and Fall of the Eoman Empire, vol. i. , p. 223. 

2 Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 270. 






Landmarks and Boundaries. 219 

fined to England, but is also a Knssian custom. 1 The 
Cossacks had a custom similar in the case of disputed 
boundaries. When it was finally agreed upon, all the 
boys of the two divisions of land were collected and 
driven along the line, and at each landmark, some of 
the boys were whipped and allowed to run home, that 
in later years they might be able to testify to the spot 
where the landmark stood. 2 It is suggested in a letter 
by Dr. William A. Lamberton of the University 
of Pennsylvania, to the author of The Threshold 
Covenant, that the " whipping of the boys " may 
be a substitute for sacrifice at the boundary posts, 
" perhaps even at one time human sacrifice. 8 That 
such was the fact there is apparently little, if any, 
doubt. The reason given for the annual whipping, to 
make the boys remember the bounds, is a late invention 
to explain the ceremony when the memories of the 
original sacrifice, and the necessity for it, had been for- 
gotten. The scourging of the boys was a substitute for 
human sacrifice, and it is probable the rite was not suf- 
ficiently perfected until some effusion of blood had 
taken place. Blood was the part of the victim which 
" believers of antiquity supposed the Deity to re- 
quire." i The whipping of the boundaries with willow 
wands was a later substitute for whipping the boys. 
Both customs had their origin in antiquity. Accord- 
ing to Pausanias, the custom of drawing a person by 
lot to be sacrificed to the deities was changed to flog- 

1 Chambers's Encyclopedia, article Bounds. 

2 The Threshold Covenant, pp. 175, 176. 3 Ibid., p. 327. 

4 Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 
102. 






220 Foundation Rites. 

ging the young men at the altar and sprinkling it with 
their blood. He says the priestess stood by during the 
operation, holding the wooden statue of the goddess, 
which was small and light unless, on account of beauty 
or rank, the scourgers spared some of the young men, 
when it became heavy and no longer easy to hold. This 
was the statue of Orthian Artemis, and the story was 
that the statue was found in a willow bush, and the wil- 
lows so tenaciously twined round it that they kept it in 
an upright position. Another name for the statue was 
" Bound-with-willow-twigs " 1 In like manner the Spar- 
tan boys were flogged at the temple of Orthia, and at 
Alea, on the occasion of the festival of Dionysus, the 
women were whipped in obedience to the command of 
the oracle of Delphi. 2 

Another thought suggested by the whipping with 
peeled willows is that a special significance was pri- 
marily attached to the rods. Artemis was a moon deity. 
Worship of the moon has been well nigh universal 
among nations. It has everywhere been believed to 
have great power in promoting fecundity and fertility. 
Willow, poplar and hazel were sacred to the moon, 
and secured her favors. With hazel and poplar rods 
with white streaks pilled in them Jacob controlled the 
offspring of Laban's flocks and herds, 3 women were 
scourged to make them prolific, 4 and the annual whip- 
ping with white willows at the boundaries promoted the 
productiveness of the fields. 

1 Pausanias, Laconia, xvi. 2 Ibid., Arcadia, xxiii. 

3 Genesis xxx. 37—42. 

4 Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology, p 
143, 



Landmarks and Boundaries. 221 

It is said a similar custom of beating the bounds was 
practised by the selectmen in New England formerly 
and up to a quite recent period, and Mr. Trumbull 
asks: "Is there not a survival of this old custom in 
the habit of striking a child on his birthday as many 
blows as he has passed years ? " ' 

Professor Hommel, of Munich, says, in South Arabic 
inscriptions the same word signifies " boundary-pillar " 
and the "statue of god." 3 The inscriptions of the 
Eoman terminus invoked a curse upon him who should 
injure the stone, that he might die the last of his race. 
A spirit, sentiero, was believed in ancient Tuscany to 
inhabit the stones that determined the limits of the 
fields, and if any one removed them the spirit would 
ruin him. 3 "In ancient Japan," writes Dr. Griffis. 
"great care was taken with boundaries and boundary 
marks, the latter being sometimes masses of charcoal 
buried in the earth, or inscribed pillars, the bases of 
which were charred." Sometimes they were carved to 
represent certain gods, which afterwards became phal- 
lic emblems. 4 

A papyrus found at Kahun contains a hymn to King 
Usertesen III. (about 2660 B. C), which Professor 
Petrie says is the most perfect example of Egyptian 
poetry that we know. In it are these lines : 

" Twice joyful are thy princes, thou hast formed their boun- 
daries. 



1 Tlie Threshold Covenant, p. 116. 

2 Ibid., p. 334, Letter to the author. 

3 Etruscan Roman Remains, p. 63. 

4 The Threshold Covenant, p. 322. 



222 .Foundation Rites. 

Twice joyful be thou, O Horus ! widening thy boundary, 
mayest thou renew an eternity of life. 

Twice great are the owners of his city, for he is as the god- 
dess Sekhet to the foes who tread on his boundary. 

He has come, he has protected his frontier, he has rescued 
the robbed." * 

A stone monument of the Tusayans, which, accord- 
ing to Oraibi tradition was erected as a landmark be- 
tween two villages, is described as having the semblance 
of a head carved on its end with shallow holes indicat- 
ing the eyes and mouth, with black lines drawn around 
them. 2 Similar stones have been found in France with 
eyes, mouth and breasts carved upon them to represent 
female divinities. According to some authorities the 
Roman termini were also sometimes marked with human 
faces. 3 

Mr. Gomme describes a custom which. formerly took 
place at the village of Holne, in Devonshire, in a field 
called Ploy, consisting of two acres which was the prop- 
erty of the parish. A granite pillar six or seven feet 
high, standing in the midst of the field, was the place 
of assembling for the young men of the village, on May 
morning, before daybreak, whence they proceeded to 
the moor and selected a ram, which was captured and 
brought to the Ploy field and fastened to the pillar. Its 
throat was then cut, and it was roasted whole in the skin 
and wool. At midday a struggle took place for a slice 
of it, which was supposed to bring luck for the ensuing 

1 History of Egypt, vol. i., pp. 182, 183. 

2 The American Antiquarian, vol. xviii., p. 8. 

3 Ibid., vol. xviii., p. 8, note. 



Landmarks and Boundaries. 223 

year upon the fortunate devourer. 1 Apparently the 
custom was a survival of former sacrificial rites offered 
to propitiate the divinity of the stone. In India, the 
low caste Kurrumbar secures the favor of the deities 
of the field at the first plowing by setting up a stone 
in the middle of the field, prostrating himself before it, 
and sacrificing a goat to it, of which he retains the head. 2 

Certain tracts of land were formerly held as holy and 
approach to them was forbidden. The prohibition of 
access, says Eobertson Smith, " does not turn on the 
idea of property, but on the awf ulness of the presence of 
God." 3 Sometimes the sacred lands were used in com- 
mon. Arabian sacred tracts called himd were marked 
off by pillars and cairns and used in common for 
pasturage. Chiefs as well as gods had their private 
tracts. Eival tribes met in peace on the sacred pas- 
tures, but when a chieftain camped with his followers no 
one else was allowed to pasture where the barking of 
the chiefs dog could be heard, but beyond the range of 
the dog's voice the grazing was common. 4 When the 
pilgrim reaches the boundary of El-Haram, the sacred 
tract around Mecca, he bathes, shaves his head, cuts 
his nails and puts on the pilgrim's dress, which he after- 
wards carefully preserves for his shroud. 5 

It has been described as a common feature of early 
English village lands, that little odds and ends of un- 
used lands have ' ' from time immemorial " been called 
" no man's land," or " any man's land," or "Jack's 

1 Village Communities, p. 113. 2 IbicL, p. 114. 

8 Religion of the Semites, p. 136, note. 

4 Ibid., pp. 136-145. 

6 The Buddhist Praying Wheel, p. 131. 



224 Foundation Rites. 

land," and in Scotland similar places are known as 
the " gudeman's field" (the devil's) 1 or " Cloutie's 
croft," which consists of a small portion of land set 
apart by the inhabitants of Scottish villages, said to 
be a propitiatory gift to the devil, upon which none 
ventures to intrude. Being dedicated to the service of 
the evil one alone, it is left untilled and uncropped, 
and it is reckoned highly dangerous to break up and 
till such pieces of ground. Similar patches of ground 
are also found in Devonshire. Mr. Gomme thinks the 
explanation to this is to be found in India, where, among 
the aborigines of Gangpore, a surna, or fragment of 
the primitive forest, is left when the first clearance is 
made, as a " refuge for the sylvan deities whom the 
clearing might have disturbed." 2 In this connection 
the writer is reminded of an expression which he has 
often heard applied to an out-of-the-way bit of land, or 
an unproductive piece, designated as " the devil's half- 
acre." May not the origin of this be found in the fact 
that at one time portions of the field were sacred to the 
guardian deities which in the transformations of relig- 
ious belief become the property of the evil spirits ? 
Pillars and obelisks erected at the crossing of streets 
once made consecrated places which in later times be- 
came unhallowed, where the bodies of suicides and 
criminals which might not be buried in " holy ground " 
were deposited. 8 

In early English history, we are told by the his- 

1 Primitive Culture, vol. ii. , p. 408. * - 

2 Village Communities, pp. 114, 115. 

3 Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 
149. note. 



Landmarks and Boundaries. 225 

torian, "a, belt of forest or waste or fen" parted from 
its fellow villages each little farmer commonwealth, " a 
ring of common ground which none of its settlers might 
take for his own, but which sometimes served as a 
death-ground where criminals met their doom." This 
was held to be the special dwelling-place of the nixie 
and the will-o'-the-wisp. Custom bade the stranger 
coming through the wood or over the waste blow his 
horn as he came, lest if he came through secretly he 
might be taken for a foe whom any man might law- 
fully slay. 1 Long before the degenerate nixies had 
taken up their abode in these borderlands, in the be- 
lief of the ancestors of these early settlers, the lands 
contiguous to the boundaries were sacred to the guard- 
ian deities of the fields. 

Among the ancient Scandinavians it was a custom 
for each occupant of a homestead to have his own pe- 
culiar landmark, with which his agricultural implements 
and other articles were also marked. This distinguish- 
ing mark was transmitted by inheritance. Even the 
mark on the ears of his reindeer must be a matter of 
court record. 2 In Iceland marks "were not to be 
taken arbitrarily, but the owner's intention must be an- 
nounced before five neighbors, and also at the spring 
Thing." The owner's mark was cut in stone over the 
principal door of the house in Denmark, and it was 
also used to designate his land and cattle, his " stall in 
church, and his grave when he was no more." The 
marks of the masters were on the beams of the servants' 
cottages in Holstein, and in the island of Fohr the mark 

1 Green's Short History of the English People, p. 3. 

2 Village Communities, p. 267. 

J 5 






226 Foundation Rites. 

was cut in stone over the door, and cut on a wooden 
ticket, was sold with the house. 1 

A method of distributing the land among the com- 
moners, at Malmesbury, under King Athelstan, by the 
use of a twig, and the repetition of a rhymed formula, 
is described by ancient chroniclers. A peculiarly formed 
twig was placed on each strip of land, and correspond- 
ing twigs placed in a hat from which the various mem- 
bers of the community drew. The twig drawn in- 
dicated the portion of land each was to have for the 
coming year, which was formally transferred to him by 
repeating : 

" This land and twig I give to thee, 
As free as Athelstan gave it me, 
And I hope a loving brother thou wilt be." 2 

The formal conveyance of land by the transfer of turf 
and twig, by " livery and seisin," was recognized in 
English law. Two of the inhabitants handed over to 
William Penn, "water and soil, turf and twig," when, 
in 1682, he took possession of his American tract. 3 

The horse was sacred to the old Teutonic gods, and 
Dr. Lawrence finds recommended in an old German 
work, that a mare's skull be fixed on a pole and placed 
in the garden, to promote the growth of plants and 
vegetables and drive away rats and caterpillars. So 
Magyar shepherds set up horses' skulls in a barren field 
of upland alleged to be a meeting-place for witches 
who prevent the grass from growing. Gypsies place 

1 Village Communities, p. 268. 2 Ibid., p. 191. 

3 The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America, John Fiske, 
vol. ii., p. 156. 



Landmarks and Boundaries. 227 

horses' skulls on the fence-palings, in regions along the 
Danube, to keep witches out of the enclosures. 1 

In taking possession of new territory the Norse 
colonists consecrated it to the tutelar deities by light- 
ing fires on the boundaries. 2 The harmful spirits 
would be propitiated or expelled. A chieftain was per- 
mitted to appropriate as much territory as he and his 
followers were able to enclose and dedicate by fires, 
lighted at sunrise, and kept burning till sunset, if the 
distance between the fires was not greater than would 
enable a man placed at one to discern the smoke of the 
other by day, and its flame by night. Sometimes fires 
were lighted at the mouths of the streams in the dis- 
trict of which possession was taken. Shooting a fiery 
arrow over a river was the equivalent of building a fire 
on the other side of the stream, and by this means, 
possession was acquired of the territory between the 
place where the arrow fell and the mouth of the river. 
Driving cattle round the borders of a district was an- 
other means of formally taking possession. Ashjorn, 
leader of a band of colonists, died on the passage to 
Iceland, when the leadership devolved upon his widow, 
Thorgerda, who, it is said, according to established 
usage, was only allowed to hold as much land in the 
new territory, " as she was able, on a summer's day, 
from sunrise to sunset, to drive a two-year old cow, or 
a young bull, round." 3 The latter ceremony was quite 
probably connected with some of the beliefs of primi- 
tive people in relation to the expulsion of evil. Some 

1 Magic of the Horseshoe, pp. 86, 87. 

2 Northern Antiquities, p. 287 ; Primitive Culture, vol. ii., 
p. 195. 3 Northern Antiquities, p. 287. 



/ 



228 Foundation Rites. 

of the tribes of India expel cholera from their midst by 
leading a female goat or buffalo to the boundaries, and 
not allowing it to return, or the people march to the 
boundary carrying a cock, the head of which is cut off 
at the boundary, and the disease is in this way trans- 
ferred to another village, the inhabitants of which, in 
turn, expel it to the next. 1 

Foreign countries were unclean in Old Testament 
language. 2 Naaman begged for two mules' burden of 
the soil of Canaan upon which to erect the shrine to 
Jahveh in Damascus. 3 In Brandenburg, the buyer of 
a horse in a neighboring town, when he has ridden him 
to the boundary line of his village, dismounts and 
gathers a handful of his native soil, and throws it back- 
ward over the line by which he has come, to prevent 
his horse from being bewitched. 4 

Somewhat of the sacredness attached to making a 
covenant for land in ancient times still clings to the 
conveyances of modern times. In Hebrew, " the 
phrase for making a covenant," says Robertson Smith, 
" points to the sacrificial observances that accompanied 
such acts." 5 It meant literally " to cut" ; the victim 
was cut in twain and the parties passed between the 
pieces. It is explained as "a symbolical form of im- 
precation, as if those who swore to one another prayed 
that, if they proved unfaithful, they might be similarly 
cut to pieces." 6 



1 The Golden Bough, vol. ii., pp. 189-291. 2 Joshua xxii. 19, 

3 II. Kings v. 17 ; Religion of the Semites, p. 92. 

4 Magic of the Horseshoe, p. 78. 

5 Old Testament in the Jewish Church, p. 248. 

6 Religion of the Semites, p. 461. 






Landmarks and Boundaries. 229 

Title-deeds of the period of Hammurabi (about 2350 
B. C.) were unearthed at Nippur. The clay tablet of 
the conveyance was enclosed in an envelope of clay, 
upon which it was also written, and the whole placed 
in a jar and buried in the earth. 1 A similar custom is 
alluded to in the Hebrew records when the Prophet 
Jeremiah purchased land of his cousin Hanameel, at 
Anathoth. 2 

The oldest of Chinese books is the Shu King, a com- 
pilation of historical documents, a portion of which is 
devoted to characters and events in the reign of Shun, 
which ended 2307 B. C, from which it is learned that 
every fifth year he made a tour of inspection of his 
dominions and offered sacrifice at each of the four 
quarters of the country, presenting a burnt offering to 
Heaven, and sacrificing to the spirits that presided 
over the hills and the rivers, a custom observed in sub- 
sequent ages by each feudal lord who sacrificed to the 
hills and rivers in his state. Shun also included in his 
worship the observance of sacrificial rites to the spirits 
that presided over mounds, dykes, plains and forests. 3 

The Shi King, the old " Poetry Classic," of the 
Chinese, in point of antiquity, ranks next the Shu 
King. In the festal odes of the houses of Chow and 
Shang are frequent references indicating the sanctity 
with which boundaries were regarded. T'ang was the 
founder of the Shang dynasty, and one of the odes, the 
composition of which is placed in the thirteenth cen- 
tury B. C, says : " God charged the warlike T'ang to 

1 Nippur, vol. ii., pp. 198, 199. 

2 Jeremiah xxxii. 14. 

8 The Religions of China, James Legge, pp. 25, 26. 



230 Foundation Rites. 

fix their boundaries on every side," and that his " land- 
marks stretch to every sea. " 1 Long before this the 
Emperor Yii, (2205-2197 B. C), according to another 
ode, had led off to the lowland the waters of the great 
flood, and " placed a bound to each great border state." 2 
When the Chow dynasty was founded sacrificial 
honors were paid to How-tsih, lord of the millet, the 
progenitor of the family, who lived in the reign of 
Shun. He had the supervision of agriculture. Ac- 
cording to legend his conception was miraculous. He 
was exposed in infancy to the forest solitudes and the 
dangers of cold and ice. He taught husbandry to the 
people, and first established the thank offering of the 
first fruits of the harvest. The day was fixed for bring- 
ing herbs and making offerings of the fat, and sacrific- 
ing " rams for the gods of roads." 3 Duke Tan-fu was 
the ancestral Prince of the House when they dwelt in 
the " kraals and the caves," 

" And he followed the stream of the West, 
Till he came to the foot of Mount K'i," 



where the plain was 

" so fertile and fat, 
That the herbs we count bitter grew sweet." 

There the East and West he defined, 

" And the bounds of demesnes, large and small, 
And allotments and acres assigned." 






Homes were built by his master-workmen, " a hundred 

1 The Shi King, A Close Metrical Translation, by William 
Jennings, part IV., book v., ode 3. 2 Ibid., ode 4. 

8 Ibid., part II., book i., ode 1. 



Landmarks and Boundaries. 231 

walls rising at once," and the gates of the temple were 
set up, 

" Then the land-spirits' altar uprose, — 
Source of each great event to the land." J 

It is by sacrifice to the Spirits of the Earth, and to the 
four quarters of the sky, by 

" gifts of millet fine, 
And rams as victims blemishless, — 
By sacrifice at every shrine, — 
Our fields such goodly wealth possess." 2 

" O ghostly father of the Fields, we pray, 
Take them, and give them to the flames of fire. 

He comes, and the pure sacrifice sets forth 
Of victims red and black, and gifts of grain, 
To Spirits of the air — of South and North ; 
And by these gifts and offerings he shall gain 
To blessings great still more of greater worth." 3 

1 The Shi King, part III., book i., ode 3. 
2 Ibid., part II., book vi., ode 7. 
3 Ibid., part II., book vi., ode 8. 



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Biblical Antiquities. — Cyrus Adler, Ph. D., and I. M. Casano- 
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23$ 



234 Foundation Rites. 

Browne, Sir Thomas. — Religio Medici. 

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2 vols., New York, 1897. 
Budge, E. A. Wallis, Litt. D., F. S. A.— The Mummy, London, 

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translation by H. W. Tytler, M. D., London, 1889. 
Chambers's Encyclopedia, 10 vols., Philadelphia, 1892. 
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Christian Register, Boston, August, 1898. 
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Conway, Moncure D. — Demonology and Devil Lore, 2 vols., 

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Cornhill Magazine. — On Kirk-Grims, February, 1887. 
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Edwards, Amelia B., LL. D.— 1000 Miles Up the Nile, 2 vols., 

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Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th Edition, New York, 1893. 
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Popular Science Monthly, vol. liv. 
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and London, 1894. 



Authors and Publications Referred To. 235 

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Green, John Richard. — A Short History of the English Peo- 
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Grimm, Jacob. — Teutonic Mythology, 4 vols., London, 1883 ; 
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Hall, Edward H. — Papias and his Contemporaries, New York 
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Harley, Rev. T. H. — Moon Lore, London, 1885. 

Harper's Weekly, March, 1889.— Article by F. D. Millet. 

Hartland, Edwin Sidney. — The Science of Fairy Tales, Lon- 
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Herodotus. — English Translation by Henry Cary, M. A., Lon- 
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Higginson, T. W. — The Dying House, Atlantic Monthly, 
Boston, Mass. 

Homer. — The Iliad, Lang, Leaf & Myers, London and New 
York, 1889. The Odyssey, Butcher & Lang, New York, 
1888. 

Hough, Walter.— The Moki Snake Dance, 1898. 

Hume, David. — The History of England, 5 vols., Boston. 

Huxley, T. H. — Science and Hebrew Tradition, New York, 
1894. 

Jackson, A. V. Williams. — Zoroaster, The Prophet of An- 
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Jastrow, Morris, Jr., Ph. D. — The Religion of Babylonia and 
Assyria, Boston, 1898. 

Jennings, William, M. A. — The Shi King, London, 1891. 

Jones, William. F. S. A, — Finger-Ring Lore, London, 1890. 
Credulities Past and Present, London, 1880. 

Josephus. — The Historical Works, William Whiston, A. M., 
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Kingsley, Mary H. — Travels in West Africa, London and New 
York, 1897. 



2$6 Foundation Rites. 

Knight, R. Payne. — The Symbolical Language of Ancient 
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Koran. — Translated by George Sale, London and New York, 
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Lang, Andrew. — Myth, Ritual and Religion, 2 vols., London 
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Lawrence, Robert Means, M. D. — The Magic of the Horseshoe, 
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Lecky, W. E. H., M. A. — Rationalism in Europe, 2 vols., New 
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Lucretius, literally translated by Rev. John Selby Watson, 
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Mallet. — Northern Antiquities ; English translation by 
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Maspero, G. — Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria ; English 
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New York Tribune. — Report of Address of Archbishop Cor- 

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238 Foundation Rites. 

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INDEX. 



Aarru, fields, 140. 

Ab, 143. 

Abraham's Stone at Mecca, 160, 176. 

Abyssinian cure for possession, 160. 

Accadian tablet, 11 ; of laws, 184 ; in praise of sacred ship, 

206. 
^Eneas, 204. 
Aguinaldo, 144. 
Ahab, 129. 
Ahriraan, 131. 

Alaska, sacrifice in beginning a house, 49. 
Alexander at tomb of Achilles, 159. 
Allen, Grant, 13, 29, 35, 42, 43, 44, 51, 52, 60, 80, 107, 125, 134, 

149, 150, 174, 175, 195, 202, 203, 205, 218. 
Alonzo of Castile, code of, 76. 
Al-thing, 153. 

Amant, Jean de, execution of, 77. 
Ambrose, St., 119. 

American Antiquarian, 70, 97, 152, 153, 200, 222. 
Amika, soldiers of, beheaded, 129. 

Andrew, Saint, spiritual founder of Constantinople, 123. 
Angels in early Christian art, 90. 
Angerburg, discovery of skeleton at, 45. 
7 Animals, substitutes for human victims, 52 ; domestic, all 

killing of, sacrificial, 51. 
Animal worship, Egyptian composite figures originated in, 89. 
Animism, 12, 72. 

Antioch, sacrifice at foundation of, 21. 
Apollo, Greeks consulted before building, 62. 
Apparitions of children, 110. 

Arabian marriage ceremony, 161 ; sacrifice of holy camel, 80. 

2 39 



240 Index. 

Arcadians, sacrifices at Messene, 57. 

Areas, remains of, 126. 

Aristomenes, Messenian records buried by, 55. 

Ark of the Covenant, 154, 188, 208. 

Arta, bridge of, 39. 

Artemis, sacrifice to, in Laodicea, 52. 

Ashantees, 79. 

Ashanti, King of, girls sacrificed by, 50. 

Ashurnasirapli, stele of, 213, 214. 

Asoka, 187. 

Assur, 143, 186. 

Assur-banipal, 139. 

Assur-nasir-pal, records of, 129. 

Assyrians, images among, 78 ; winged deities, 89. 

Asylums for lost souls, 84. 

Athens, haunted house of, 115v 

Aventine Hill, 19. 

Awonawilona, all-father of the Pueblos, 33. 

Aztecs, 79, 96, 99, 169. 

B. 

Babar Islanders believe soul is in shadow, 106. 

Babes, images of immured in walls, 94. 

Babu, 129. 

Babylonian, foundations anointed, 63 ; tablet for exorcism of 

Evil Spirits, 76. 
Bacchus, 125. 

Baghdad, burying dead in cellars at, 126. 
Baladan, King Merodach, boundary stone of, 214. 
Baldur, dwarf burned with, 81. 
Ball, Rev. C. J., 207. 
Baring-Gould, Rev. S., 11, 26, 27, 35, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 

58, 60, 66, 67, 94, 107, 108, 110, 111, 134, 176. 
Barrows, haunts of fairies, 112. 
Basutos, village of, 151. 
Battlefields, haunted by dead soldiers, 112. 
Baxter, Richard, 68. 






Index. 241 



Beasts formed of earth and blood, 52. 

Beating the bounds, 218, 221. 

Bel, architect of the universe, 89, 186, 207. 

Berdoe, Edward, 130, 145, 170, 172, 182. 

Berosus, 24. 

Bethel, 63, 175. 

Bible. Old Testament, 26, 28, 61, 63, 68, 77, 100, 129, 141, 145, 
155, 158, 162, 164, 165, 167, 169, 172, 176, 178, 181, 182, 183, 
188, 189, 204, 208, 209, 215, 216, 220, 228, 229 ; New Testa- 
ment, 27, 74, 123, 169, 171 ; Polychrome, Joshua, 154, 164 ; 
Ezekiel, 83, 90. 

Biblical Antiquities, 79, 89. 

Bishop, Bridget, trial of, 93. 

Blackfriars Bridge, 44. 

Black Stone of Mecca, 160. 

Blex, church of, child built in wall, 42. 

Bloodroot, Canadian belief about, 178. 

Body, the habitat of soul, 72. 

Book of Creation, 162. 

Book of the Dead, 138, 140, 145. 

Boundaries, sacrifices at, 218 ; whipping boys at, 218 ; whip- 
ping with willows, 219. 

Bovey Traoey, 150. 

Brahma, universe formed of body of, 26, 33. 

Bremen, skeleton in wall of bridge gate, 43. 

Brinton, D. G., 33, 65, 73, 92, 100, 102, 126, 137, 177, 180, 204. 

Browne, Sir Thomas, 123. 

Buckle, Henry Thomas, 65. 

Buddhist temples rebuilt on same foundations, 189. 

Budge, E. A. W., 24, 79, 91, 124, 165. 

Builders, wives of, sacrificed, 37, 38, 39. 

Burials in Jerusalem, 164. 

Burmese, Queen drowned, 47 ; buried alive, 47 ; ancient cus- 
toms, 94. 

Bushmen, primitive homes of, 151. 

Butjadeirgen, boy buried alive at, in foundation, 43. 

Butter, substitute for animal life, 64. 
16 



242 Index. 

c. 

Cade, Jack, 150. 

Cagliostro, 179. 

Caique, launching on the Bosphorus, 202. 

Cairo, mosques of, shrines of Saints, 118. 

Calliraachus, 62, 63. 

Candle, symbol of life, 67 ; built in wall, 67 ; corpse candle, 68. 

Camel, Arabian sacrifice of, 159. 

Campius Martius, annual sacrifice of horse, 54. 

Caribs, bones of, suspended from door, 126 ; believe soul in 

bones, 128. 
Cathach, 162. 

Caucon, founder of rites to Demeter, 55. 
Cauldron, built in church wall, 134. 
Celts, 125. 

Cemetery, blessing of, 161. 
Chaldeans, sacrifices of, 40-41. 
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, 66, 118, 145, 218. 
Charles I., healing by blood of, 182. 
Chibchacs, 152. 

Chicken, sacrificed instead of girl, 59. 
Chillicothe, 152. 

Chinese building custom, 59 ; legend of flood, 176. 
Chnemu, 165. 

Cholera, driven from boundaries, 228. 
Christian churches built of pagan materials, 192, 193. 
Christ, the corner stone, 27 ; figure of, crucified to a vine, 94. 
Churchyards, specters of animals in, 109. 
Circleville, 152. 

Citadel, living child underneath, 40. 
Cliff dwellers, 152, 170. 
Clifford, Rosamund, 129. 
Coatlan, dedication of the temple of, 200. 
Cock, buried under wall, 57. 
Coffins built in wall, 133. 

Coins under doorsill, 100 ; under foundation, 101. 
Coldingham Abbey, nuns immured, 45. 



Index. 243 



Coleridge, S. T., 156. 

Concubines immolated, 79. 

Conway, M. D., 41, 75, 87, 199. 

Copenhagen, girl immured at, 42. 

Coronation Stone of England, 175, 184, 

Cory, 24. 

Covenant, meaning of, 228. 

Criminal, put in post hole at Tavoy, 46. 

Cross, protects from witches, 99. 

Cups in menhirs, 134. 

Curtea de Argest, Monastery of, 40. 

Curtius, Ernst, 55, 56. 



D. 



Dabod, images in temple at, 91. 

Dahomey, origin of name, 47. 

Dante, 104, 170. 

Darius, inscription of, 141. 

David, King, 161, 168, 188. 

Davids, T. W. Rhys, 13. 

Dayaks, 46. 

Dead, buried in cellars, 126. 

Deasil, 163. 

Deir el Bahri, 148, 187. 

Deities, possession of images of, secures favors, 92. 

Delhi, blood of animals used in foundations at, 60. 

Delphi, oracle of, 126. 

Demeter, 146. 

Demons of the field propitiated, 213. 

Detinetz, origin of name, 43. 

Devil, lands set apart for, 224. 

Devil's bridges, 199. 

Devils frightened by their own images, 93. , 

Dionysus, sacrifice to, 52 ; statues of, 180. 

Disease, ancient theory of, 182. 

Doe, sacrificed instead of virgin, 52. 

Dog, buried under wall, 58 ; Babylonian tablets of, 110. 



244 Index. 

Doom-ring, 153. 

Draco, laws of, 77. 

Duga, children rescued at, 48. 

Dur-Sargina, 92. 

E. 

Earth-Spirit, propitiated, 11, 229. 

Edwards, A. B., 91, 92, 124, 137, 138, 147, 148, 187. 

Egg, in Chinese legend, 65 ; in wall at Nippur, 66 ; Easter, 66. 

Egyptians, Tale of Two Brothers, 74 ; sacrifice servants, 80 ; 

red-haired men and cattle, 181. 
Eigil, banishment of, 97. 
Emerods, images of, made by Philistines, 76. 
Enguerrand, Marigny de, execution of, 77. 
Eny alius in fetters, 94. 
Epaminondas, 56. 
Ephod, 158. 

Esarhaddon, 96, 140, 186. 
Etrurian foundation ceremonies, 53. 
Etruscan incantation, 100. 
Euripides, 158, 204. 
Evans, E. P., 40, 170, 172, 173. 
Evil-eye, 98, 99, 172, 183. 
Evil One, with soul of Dives, 75. 
Evil spirits, exorcised, 76 ; expelled by fire, 158 ; Chinese 

communicate with, 181 ; deities of discarded religions, 

199. 
Eyeballs of dead men secure their favors, 133. 
Ezekiel, condemns traffic in souls, 83 ; vision of, 165. 



Feathers in building rites, 69, 200 ; in incantations, 179. 

Figures* in temples and tombs, 91. 

Finger -joint, substitute for person, 64. 

Fire, taking possession by, 227. 

First-born, sacrifice of a foundation rite, 27. 



Index. 245 



Fishhooks used to catch souls, 75. 

Fiske, John, 226. 

Flowers, offerings of, depreciated by smelling, 69. 

Foreign countries unclean, 227. 

Forum, 17. 

Foundations laid in blood, universality of, 46 ; weakened by 

movements against the sun, 165. 
Fowls, under foundations in Modern Greece, 57. 
Frazer, J. G., 52, 57, 74, 75, 80, 105, 106, 132, 135, 178, 181, 202. 

G. 

Galam, 46. 

Galatians buried alive at Rome, 21. 

Ganderkesee, child immured at, 43. 

Ganges, Hooghly bridge across, 42. 

Geronimo, walled in at Algiers, 36. 

Gervasius, Saint, 119. 

Ghosts in stones, 167. 

Gibbon, E., 118, 122, 123, 124, 217, 218. 

Gilgal, 154. 

Gilgamesh, 170. 

Goat, sacrificed to Dionysus, 52. 

Gomme, G. L., 149, 150, 151, 153, 222, 224-226. 

Gonds, straw-men and images of animals sacrificed, 80, 178. 

Gonzaga, St. Aloysius, 147. 

Grant, General, at Assioot, 205. 

Great Bassam, foundation at, 46. 

Greece, Modern, foundation in, 57. 

Greeks, buried alive in Rome, 27 ; belief of, 86. 

Green, J. R., 225. 

Greenlanders' belief about the shadow, 104. 

Greenshaw Hill, 153. 

Grimm, Jacob, 37, 39, 43, 58, 112, 133, 198. 

Groningen, merchant of, 127. 

Guadaloupe, Our Lady of, 114. 

Guardian of Idols, sacrifice of, 79. 

Gudea, 207. 



246 Index. 

Guinea Negroes, communication with dead ancestors, 128. 
Gunther, Count Anthony, 42. 

H. 

Hair, substitute for ox, 64 ; seat of life, 131 ; of Mahomet, 131. 

Hankas, tablet of, 215. 

Hatshepset, Queen, 187. 

Harley, T., 100. 

Hartland, E. S., 112, 113, 125, 192. 

Hearne, Lafcadio, 69, 95. 

Hebrew, 25 ; proverb against evil-eye, 99. 

Hector, 159. 

Heliotrope, 170. 

Hellenium, 138. 

Herbs, Babylonians place under walls, 63. 

Hermes, 216. 

Herodotus, 82, 138, 140, 182, 217. 

Hesiod, tomb of, 134. 

Hiel, builder of Jericho, 29, 30. 

Higginson, T. W., 109. 

Hindu, ceremonies in beginning a house, 64 ; use effigies of 

milk, 86. 
Holinshed, 150. 

Hols worthy Church, built over living person, 44. 
Homer, 81, 159, 204. 
Honeysuckle decoration, origin of, 90. 
Horse, Teutonic sacrifices of, 198, 226. 
House, building in India, 155. 
Huayna-Capac, 96. 

Hulai, skin of, stretched upon the walls of Damdamusa, 129. 
Humbleton Hill, 153. 
Hume, 174. 
Huxley, T. H., 179. 



Incas, 4 ; servants buried with, 79 ; sacred color, 179. 
Incense, protection of, 69. 



Index. 247 

Ingolf, settlement in Iceland, 190. 

Images, injury to, causing death, 75 ; shooting them to cure 

disease, 76 ; of servants in tombs, 78. 
Immured in walls, 44. 
Imperial purple, origin of, 180. 
Iona, 34. 

Iphigenia, priestess of Diana, 28 ; at Aulis, 158, 204. 
Irish towers, skeleton under, 46. 
Isle of Saints, 33. 
Ithome, 55, 56. 

Ivy, symbol of life and sacred to gods, 98. 
Izamal, sculpture found at, 96. 

J. 

Jacob, sons of, Mohammedan pillars, 28 ; covenant of, 189, 

215 ; herds of, 220. 
James I., statute against conjuring with dead body, 117. 
Jamshid, jeweled cup of, 171. 
Japan, 46. 
Jastrow, Morris, Jr., 22, 24, 30, 63, 78, 103, 110, 144, 170, 185, 

207, 213. 
Jennings, William, 230. 
Jericho, rebuilding of, 29 ; fall of, 164. • 
Jerusalem, dedication of wall, 208. 
Jewels, blessed by King, 170. 
Jonah, 204. 

Jones, William, 118, 132, 134, 144, 203, 204, 211 
Joseph, bones of, 126. 
Josephus, 208, 209. 
Juno, temple of, at Carthage, 127. 
Jupiter, summit of temple encircled with bells, 158 ; founding 

of temple at Rome, 171, 191. 

K. 

Ka, 92, 126, 137. 

Ka'abah, 159, 174. 

Kangaroos, images speared to ensure successful hunt^ 77. 



248 Index. 

Kar-Amid, 129. 

Karma, 156. 

Khans, the great, customs of, 81. 

Khonds, 9, 135, 150, 169. 

King of Siam, coronation rites, 161. 

Kingsley, Mary H., 84, 133, 178. 

Kirk-grims, 109, 199. 

Khorsabad, tablets from, 139 ; bull inscription, 142. 

Knight, R. P., 65, 66, 165, 166, 177, 179, 216, 219, 220, 224. 

Koran, 160, 174. 

Kudurru stones, 213. 

Kung-Kung, legend of, 176. 

Kurigalzu, 146, 186. 

Kvo'lld-Ulf, death of, 126. 

L. 

Lamb, under church-altars, 57 ; substitution of, 60. 
Land, distribution by twigs, 226 ; taking possession of, 227. 
Landmarks, in Japan, 221 ; of Scandinavians, 225 ; in Ice- 
land, 225 ; Hebrew, 215. 
Land spirits, altars of, 231. 
Lang, A., 13, 76, 135, 168, 180, 216. 
Language, roots of divine, 143. 
Laodicea, stag sacrificed at, 22. 
Launceston Castle, haunted by bloodhounds, 110. 
Lawrence, R. M., 99, 198, 201, 227, 228. 
Lea, H. C, 76, 77, 78, 87, 127. 
Leagues with the Devil, 198. 
Lebanon, remains near, 152. 
Lecky, W. E. H., 118. 
Legge, James, 229. 

Leibenstein Castle, child walled in, 40. 
Leland, Charles G., 69, 93, 98, 99, 100, 182, 221. 
Leprosy, Hebrew purification from, 183. 
London Wall, figures in foundation, 94 ; London Stone, 150. 
Longfellow, H. W., 104, 108. 
Lowell, J. R., 116, 117. 






Index. 249 



Lucretius, 73. 
Luther, Martin, 144. 
Lyciscus, daughter of, 20. 
Lyre made of tortoise, 216. 



M. 



Mseva, pillar of temple on human victim, 46. 

Mahomet, hair worn by followers, 131. 

Mallet, 24, 26, 81, 97, 98, 125, 127, 143, 154, 190, 227. 

Mandalay, men buried under gates, 47 ; palace reared above 

dead men, 47. 
Man, Egyptians thought composite being, 137. 
Manoli, story of, 37. 
Manu, code of. 155. ' 
Marcellus of Bordeaux, 98. 

Marian Islanders believe dead ancestors guard them, 128. 
Marriage ceremony, Brahman and Russian, 155 ; Mexican, 

161. 
Masonic ceremony, 70. 
Maspero, G., 13, 88, 89, 204. 
Mather, Cotton, 93, 109, 145. 
Mather, Increase, 68. 
Mazowia, building tower in, 113. 
Medusa, representation of soul of, 75. 
Melikertes, calf sacrificed to, 52. 
Merlin, reputed parentage, 37. 
Messene, rites in founding, 55. 
Messenians, 20. 

Mexican temples, dedication of, 200. 
Michaux Stone, 213. 
Michocoan, women sacrificed in, 79. 
Migration of beliefs, 10. 
Millet, F. D., 144. 

Miracles in St. Augustine's diocese, 118. 
Mirrors, believed to be dangerous, 105. 
Missouri, prehistoric dwellings in, 151. 
Mizpeth, mountains of, annual mourning on, 22. 



250 Index. 

Miztecs, slaves of, sacrificed, 79. 

Models of tools in foundations, 147. 

Mokis, customs of, 200. 

Mommsen, T., 14, 54,217. 

Montaigne, Michael, 191. 

Montezuma, 199. 

Mont St. Michael, 125. 

Moore, Thomas, 111, 171. 

Mountain-ash, protection from witches, 201. 

Mummies, Peruvian, 180. 

Mundrucus, lodging house of, guarded by enemies' heads, 128. 

N. 

Nabonnedos, poured oil on threshold, 63 ; records of, 185. 

Nabu, temple of, in Borsippa, 185. 

Nadaillac, Marquis de, 79, 96, 99, 101, 143, 151, 152, 169, 170, 

180, 181, 200. 
Nail-parings, Pliny's reference to, 131 ; Peruvians and Turks 

secrete in wall, 132. 
Name, part of personality, 137 ; essential to immortality, 138 ; 

not to be used lightly, 140. 
Naples, 65. 
Naukratis, 147. 

Nebopolassar put sweet herbs under the walls, 63. 
Nebuchadnezzar, repaired temple of sun at Senkereh, 142 ; 

dedication of statue, 207. 
Nes-Hor, 139. 

New Guinea, skulls preserved by the natives of, 128. 
New Mexico, building rites in, 178. 
Nezahualpilli, sacrifice in honor of, 79. 
Nice, council of, 118. 

Nieder-manderscheid, young lady built in wall of, 40. 
Nin-girsu, god of corn heaps, 213. 
Ninip, 143. 

Nippur, phallic representations, 103 ; inscriptions of, 146. 
Nithing-post, 97. 
Nogat, beggar sacrificed at dam, 43. 



Index. 251 



Norse myths of foundation of the world, 25. 
Nuns, immured in walls, 44. 



O. 



Odin, 25, 28. 

Odysseus, 113, 204. 

Old Strelitz, story of enchanted princess of, 113. 

Omorca, 24, 25. 

Only son, blood of, makes secure foundation, 43. 

Open Court, 192, 193, 194. 

Oran, companion of St. Columba, 35* 

Orapus, oracle of, 100. 

Ormazd, 142. 

Ortygia, Apollo laid foundations of, 62. 

Osiris, death of, 22 ; body became foundations of temples, 118. 



Palestine, explorations in, 154. 

Pallas, funeral rites of, 159. 

Passports given the dead, 143. 

Patroclus, funeral pyre of, 81 ; funeral rites, 159. 

Pausanias, 20, 56, 57, 66, 78, 92, 94, 100, 106, 111, 126, 135, 146, 

157, 168, 180, 205, 216, 220. 
Peel Castle, haunted by black dog, 110. 
Penn, William, taking possession of Pennsylvania, 226. 
Pen-ta-ur, 196. 

Peony, Greeks believed of divine origin, 182. 
Percy, Thomas, 130. 

Perfume, believed to be blood of divine flower, 68. 
Pericles, 188. 

Persepolis, rubies beneath the pillars of, 171. 
Perseus with head of Medusa, 75. 
Persian myth of divine ox, 60. 
Peruvians, 92, 169, 180. 
Peters, John P., 66, 103, 126, 175, 229. 
Petrie, W. M. F., 74, 124, 145, 187, 222. 
Petroma, 146. 



252 Index. 

Phallic images in America, 101 ; among orientals, 102, 103 ; 

boundary stones, 214 ; pillars of Hercules, 216. 
Phylacteries, 145. 
Picts, mother church of, in Iona, 35 ; driven out by Saxon 

Princes, 36 ; bathing foundations in blood, 109. 
Pigsty, dedication of, in China, 201. 
Pillars of pagan temples in Christian churches, 192-194. 
Pitura, castle at, 129. 
Pius IX., evil eye of, 99. 
Plato, waxen images condemned by, 78. 
Plutarch, 16, 17, 23, 28, 53, 125, 155, 159. 
Polo, Marco, 81, 189, 191. 
Pope, Alexander, 157. 

Pope John XXII., bull of, against science, 76. 
Popular Science Monthly, 40, 50, 135, 150, 178. 
Portraits, fear of, in Russia and Scotland, 106. 
Prague, "White Lady of, 113. 

Praying Wheel, symbolical of movements with the sun, 162. 
Precious stones, guard against evil spirits, 169 ; symbolism of, 

171 ; power of, 172 ; healing properties, 173. 
Prescott, W. H., 79, 93, 180. 
Princes of darkness, frightened by candles, 67. 
Protasius, Saint, 119. 
Putnam, G. H., 145. 

Q. 

Quarmus, Tell, models of tools found at, 147. 
Quetzacoatl, entrance to temple of, 96. 

R. 

Ragozin, Z. A., 25, 27. 

Rajah Sala Byne, sacrificed only son to make secure fort- 
ress, 43. 
Rani Attah, makes Burma solid, 33. 
Rassam, Hormuzd, 139. 
Rawnsley, H. D., 196. 
Reclus, Elie, 33, 49, 178. 






Index. 253 

Recordi, Pierre, condemned for making figurines, 78. 

Records of the Past, 11, 63, 74, 76, 97, 110, 129, 140, 141, 142, 
144, 184, 185, 187, 214. 

Red, a substitute for blood, 177 ; religious significance of, 
211 et seq. 

Red hand as a symbol, 183. 

Reed, E. A., 155, 196. 

Reflection, belief about when seen in water, 104. 

Reichenfells castle, child built in wall, 42. 

Relics, potency of, believed in Shakespeare's time, 117 ; 
miracles wrought by, 118 ; carried as amulets, 127. 

Rice, as a sacrificial offering, 65 ; protection from witches, 
100. 

River-god propitiated by children in China, 40. 

Rheti, waters of, sacred, 216. 

Roman Forum, origin of, 17. 

Romans, statues placed under foundations, 85. 

Romulus, 17, 18, 53. 

Roses spring from blood, 178. 

Rosetta Stone, 92. 

Rubaiyat, 179. 

Rugby, skeleton found at, 45. 

Runic characters, power of, 143. 

Russian superstition against entering a new house, 58 ; Rus- 
sian Bible, picture of Dives and Lazarus, 75. 

S. 

Sacred cow led round the temple, 155; lands, 224; trees, 

accessible only to holy persons, 68. 
Salamis, 205. 1 - 

Sandel, children immured in wall, 43. (/ 

Satapatha Brahmana, 52. 
Scott, Walter, 44, 107. 
Scutari, young lady immured in wall, 39. 
Scythian kings, burial of, 82. 
Seals, with image of emperor in Roman foundation, 94. 



254 Index. 

Sennacherib, 139, 141, 185. 

Serpents, interlaced, protect from evil eye, 99. 

Shadows, believed to be the soul, 104 ; injury to, causes death, 

106 ; buried in foundations in Greece and Babylonia, 107. 
Shadow-traders, 107. 
Shakespeare, 34, 117, 130, 137, 157. 
Shalmaneser built pyramids of heads, 129. 
Shamash, temple of, at Sippar, 63 ; exhorted to protect 

foundations, 186. 
Shanghai, building bridges at, 41, 49. 
Shi King, 229-231. 
Ships, christening, 201 et seq.; blessed in Siberia and 

Yarmouth, 204. 
Shu King, 188, 229. 
Shulgur, god of corn heaps, 230. 
Siam, buried alive under gates of, 48. 
Simpson, William, 11, 122, 154, 155, 156, 160-165, 192,223. 
Sin, temple of, 138, 142, 187. 
Sinai, sacred boundaries of, 215. 
Sivan, god of foundations, 88. 
Skadra, building of, 38. 
Skeleton in every house, 116. 
Skull in wall at Cornwall, 133. 

Smallpox, propitiation by, 41 ; cured by red wrappings, 182. 
Smith, William, 216. 
Smith, W. Eobertson, 21, 51, 52, 60, 63, 65, 68, 86, 101, 131, 159, 

168, 169, 223, 228. 
Sokar, bark of, 155. 
Solomon, temple of, founded, 171 ; site of, 188 ; dedication of, 

208. 
Soul, the life of the senses, 72 ; conceived by lower races, 73 ; 

multiple, 73 ; transferred to a tree, 74 ; as a thumbling, 83. 
South Sea Islands, temple foundations of, 46. 
Spartan boys whipped at temple, 220. 
Specters as spiritual guardians, 108. 
Spencer, Herbert, 85, 101, 104, 106, 117, 125, 126, 130, 137, 140, 

143, 167, 169, 177. 



Index. 255 

Speth, G. W., 11, 12, 21, 27, 35, 37, 38, 40, 42, 43-48, 57-60, 65, 

71. 74, 85, 93, 107, 120-122, 133, 196, 197, 202. 
Spirits, malevolent, propitiated in India, 59. 
Statues, in tombs, 91 ; of scribe, 147. 
St. Basil, cathedral of, 197. 
St. Benedict, relics in chnrch of, 122. 
St. Columba in Iona, 34. 
Stern, H. I., 16, 26, 28. 
St. George, 119. 

St. George's chapel, relics in, 121. 
St. John the Baptist, arm of, 127. 
St. Mark, resting place of, 119. 
St. Nicholas, 119. 
Stonehenge, 166. 
Stoneleigh, sacrifice at, 43. 
Stone of foundation, 168. 
Stones and men, interchangeable, 169. 
St. Patrick, legend of, 58. 
St. Peters, foundation of, 119. 
St. Sabina, date of, 19 ; relics of, 119. 
St. Vitus, 162, 192. 
Suetonius, 158. 
Suhman, preparation of, 178. 
Sunbeams, making gold from, 107. 
Sunderland, J. T., 29, 30. 
Sunflower, protects houses, 100. 
Sun, symbolized by wheel, 165. 
Supernatural and scarlet, 179., 
Swanto Wit, 162, 192. 

Swastika, in India and Mexico, 95 ; in China and England, 96. 
Synagogue, consecration of, 164. 



Tablets, for exorcism of evil spirits, 76 ; cure diseases, 144. 
Tacitus, 171, 191. 
Tahutmes III., 148, 187. 



256 Index. 



Tankalis, widow of carries bones of her husband, 126. 
Tariatnas, believe virtues of the dead are transmitted to the 

living, 128. 
Tavoy, building of, 46. 
Tawaf, 161. 
Tell Gemayemi and Tell Nebesheh, models of tools found at, 

147. 
Temple, laying foundation of, at Jerusalem, 60 ; outgrowth 

of tomb, 125. 
Terminus, festival of, 217 ; representation of, 218 ; marked 

with human faces, 222. 
Teraphim, 93. 

Thatung, hero buried under fortress, 47. 
Theagnes, statue of, indicted for murder, 47. 
Thibaw, king, 94. 
Thor, temple of, in Iceland, 190. 
Tiamat, the Omorca of Berosus, 24. 
Ti, statues of in tomb, 92. 
Tigris, inscribed stones found near, 213. 
Timin, 141, 185. 

Title-deeds, Babylonian and Hebrew, 228. 
Toads, blood of, sacrificed to devil, 77. 
Tomb, home of the Ka, 124 ; primitive temple, 125. 
Toy, C. H., 83, 89. 
Traps to catch souls, 84. 
Tricha, building bridge of, 40. 
Troy, circumambulation of, 159. 
Trullan, council of, 118. 
Trumbull, H. C, 21, 36, 39, 40, 41, 43, 46, 49, 53,54, 57, 65, 85, 

100, 102, 107, 124, 145, 175, 184, 186-190, 205, 215, 221. 
Tucanos, belief of, 128. 

Turmeric, blood essential to its cultivation, 178. 
Tusayans, carved landmarks of, 222. 
Tylor, E. B., 11, 13, 14, 35, 39, 41, 43, 46, 52, 54, 57. 59, 64, 67, 

72, 82, 90, 105, 128, 133, 147, 170, 178, 185, 199, 219, 224. 
Tyr, anchored with blood, 33. 
Tzempantli, human heads in masonry of, 96. 



Index. 257 

u. 

Uacarras, graves in houses of, 128. 

Uea, soul-doctors at, 84. 

United States custom of naming new frame, 58. 

Usertesen I., 142. 

Usertesen III., images of, for boundary stones, 215; hymn 

to, 221. 
Ushebte, use of, by the Egyptians, 79. 
Uxmal, phallic images found at, 102. 



Varthing, 154. 

Varuna, 162. 

Vedic rituals and human sacrifice, 26. 

Vesta, temple of, at Rome, 166. 

Vikings, launching a ship, 202. 

Village, how founded by primitive people, 149. 

Vines, interlaced, protection of, 98. 

Viracoche, endowed stones with life, 169. 

Virgil, 74 ; on evil-eye, 99, 127, 156, 159. 

Virgin, image of at Martinique, 95. 

Vishtaspa, conversion of, 75, 83, 204. 

Vortigern, story of, 37. - i 

W. 

Wallace, A. R., 128. 

Water-gruel, as substitute for animal sacrifice, 64. 

Westminster Abbey, legend of original founding, 209. 

Wheel of the law, 165. 

White, A. D., 77, 144, 158. 

Wi, of the Karens, restores the dead, 85. 

Widdershins, 163. 

Wiedemann, A., 23, 53, 80, 91, 124, 138, 140, 141, 145. 

Williams, Thomas, 19, 80, 120, 124. 

Willow, a sacred wood, 220. 

Will-o'-the-wisp, the dwelling-place of, 224. 



258 Index. 



Wilson, Thomas, 95, 96. 

Winged genii of Greek, Etruscan and Roman art, predecessors 

of, 90. 
Winneberg, tower of, 42. 
Winter Solstice in Egypt, 155. 
Witches, driven away by bells, 158. 
Women, flogged at festival of Dionysus, 220. 
Wood, E. J., 162, 205. 
Words, amulets against disease, 143. 



Yarkand, building bridge in, 40. 

Yarriba, foundation of house in, 46 

Yellow Sea, origin of name, 177. 

Yggdrasil, 26. 

Ymir, 25. 

Yucatan, deities of, 177. 



Zabu, King, 186. 

Zagatai, conversion of, Marco Polo's story, 191. 

Zoroaster, 75. 

Zulus, belief about the shadow, 104. 

Zunis, creation legend of, 33. 



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